White House hosts India Inc. meeting on H-1B visas, tried to keep it hush-hush

[brentspeak]

Just as Obama promised, job-killing corporate lobbyists will "have a seat at the table":

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9130258

March 23, 2009 (Computerworld) A delegation from one of India's largest business groups visited Washington last week to make a case for the H-1B visa program, among other political topics. And it was a group with enough clout to meet with top White House officials.

The meeting likely would have gone unnoticed had it not been for reports in the Indian news media. Heading the delegation was Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and CEO of Bharti Enterprises Ltd., India's largest mobile phone operator. The U.S. officials at the meeting included Lawrence Summers, director of the National Economic Council (NEC) and assistant to President Obama for economic policy.

In India, H-1B visas are seen as critical to that country's IT services industry. The four largest visa recipients during the federal government's 2008 fiscal year are all India-based services firms. After an earlier visit to the U.S., officials from India's top IT trade group, the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), called the H-1B hiring restrictions set by Congress on financial services firms that receive federal bailout funds an issue of "extreme concern."

In last week's visit, Mittal was representing the Confederation of Indian Industry, whose affiliate members include Nasscom. According to the Indian press reports about the trip, Mittal characterized the delegation's meeting with Summers as "positive."

The Obama administration has yet to outline its plans for the H-1B program, but the White House has given some signals that it might support an increase in the annual visa cap — primarily via the appointment of officials who have advocated cap increases in the past, such as Janet Napolitano, the former governor of Arizona and now secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

And in meeting with Summers, the delegation from India found itself with the White House organization that may be most likely to support an H-1B increase. One of the NEC's deputy directors is Diana Farrell, an Obama appointee who has been a strong supporter of offshore outsourcing. Prior to taking her job at the NEC, Farrell was a director at management consulting firm McKinsey & Co., which has argued in reports — some authored by Farrell — that offshore outsourcing creates savings that are reinvested by companies.

When Obama was a U.S. senator, he supported a comprehensive immigration reform bill that was proposed in 2007 but never voted on after its sponsors failed to get enough support for a procedural motion to end debate. That bill would have raised the annual H-1B cap from 65,000 regular visas to as many as 180,000, while also authorizing additional visas for foreigners with advanced degrees from U.S. universities beyond the 20,000 that currently can be issued each year. Since 2007, Obama has continued to urge support for comprehensive immigration reform, but without being specific on the issue of raising the H-1B cap.

[WeDidIt]

1. Yeah, and he listended to a bunch of fundies, too

right before he threw out Bush's Executive Order about Stem Cell research.

[Deja Q]

5. Loose association that is, but a good point nonetheless.

Impossible to tell, this thing called "future".

[FrenchieCat]

2. Brentspeak real message......Obama = Bush

what's new?

[Deja Q]

3. *cough*

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/26/qa-with-senator-barack-obama-on-key-technology-issues/

:shrug:

[NYC_SKP]

7. That's from November 2007, no reason his position has changed. He'd prefer training Americans.

MA: What is your position on H1B visas in general? Do you believe the number of H1B visas should be increased?

BO: Highly skilled immigrants have contributed significantly to our domestic technology industry. But we have a skills shortage, not a worker shortage. There are plenty of Americans who could be filling tech jobs given the proper training. I am committed to investing in communities and people who have not had an opportunity to work and participate in the Internet economy as anything other than consumers. Most H-1B new arrivals, for example, have earned a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent abroad (42.5%). They are not all PhDs. We can and should produce more Americans with bachelor’s degrees that lead to jobs in technology. A report of the National Science Foundation (NSF) reveals that blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans as a whole comprise more that 25% of the population but earn, as a whole, 16% of the bachelor degrees, 11% of the master’s degrees, and 5% of the doctorate degrees in science and engineering. We can do better than that and go a long way toward meeting industry’s need for skilled workers with Americans. Until we have achieved that, I will support a temporary increase in the H-1B visa program as a stopgap measure until we can reform our immigration system comprehensively. I support comprehensive immigration reform that includes improvement in our visa programs, including our legal permanent resident visa programs and temporary programs including the H-1B program, to attract some of the world’s most talented people to America. We should allow immigrants who earn their degrees in the U.S. to stay, work, and become Americans over time. As part of our comprehensive reform, we should examine our ability to replace a stopgap increase in the number of H1B visas with an increase in the number of permanent visas we issue to foreign skilled workers. I will also work to ensure immigrant workers are less dependent on their employers for their right to stay in the country and would hold accountable employers who abuse the system and their workers.

[uponit7771]

4. "...but without being specific on the issue of raising the H-1B cap..."!!! Also, he said he'd suppor

...support h1 increase as long as there are protections against exploitation IIRC no?

Thx

[high density]

6. "The Obama administration has yet to outline its plans for the H-1B program"

That's all I need to read... No sense upping the blood pressure over speculation.

[dionysus]

8. god damn him. let's begin impeachment proceedings immediately!!!1!!!!11!!1

:eyes: