By Tarik H. Sultan
The Arizona Daily Star
August 14, 2000

In June, a group calling itself the "Coalition for the Future American Worker" began running television ads asking us to call our congressional representative, Rep. Jim Kolbe, and blast him for his support of the pending "H-1B visa" bill, which would up the number of professional work visas available to foreign nationals in the United States.

On June 18, the Star ran a story about a local high-tech firm unable to find qualified workers for its high-paying jobs. The article listed a string of high-tech positions this Tucson company is struggling to fill.

Unfortunately, the advertisement misrepresents the true state of the high-tech economy and misstates the effect of our immigration laws, which have always vigilantly protected the American worker.

Our country is in the midst of an education crisis, not an immigration crisis. Ask an American college student what he is studying, and the answer will often be political science, business, history, sociology, creative writing, communication or some other kind of arts degree.

Then walk into the electrical or computer engineering department at the University of Arizona, and you'll feel as if you have walked into the Indian or Chinese Embassy.

Not too long ago, the Star ran an article titled "Students let high-tech careers go begging," which frankly said it all. The article pointed out that, despite hundreds of thousands of high-paying openings for programmers, engineers and systems analysts, only 3 percent of this country's 1.6 million college freshmen nationwide planned to go into computer science.

When asked why our students are turning their backs on the lucrative field, a Pima Community College counselor stated, "What I got from them is, 'I can't see myself sitting all day in front of a computer terminal.'"

It is estimated that each high-tech job leads to five more jobs in the U.S. economy, and we all benefit from the technological advances that make our lives more efficient. These skilled workers create wealth in America.

Further, the small percentage of high-tech workers who are here on visas do not work for a lower salary. Federal law and regulations require that an employer hiring an H-1 B visa worker must pay at least the prevailing wage for the position. The law specifically prohibits U.S. employers from hiring these foreigners for less.

Most of all, American employers do not enjoy having to hire foreign workers and do so only when they cannot find qualified U.S. workers for the position. Why else would they pay lawyers like me thousands of dollars to guide them through years of massive bureaucratic red tape at the Departments of Labor and Justice?

Even more, for every foreign worker hired, the employer must pay an additional $500 fee to a U.S. government "competitiveness fund," which goes to training U.S. workers. This fiscal year alone, the fund raised $57.5 million from these H-1 B visa fees paid by U.S. employers. When employers find an American with a high-tech degree, they see it as an opportunity to avoid the burdensome immigration process.

The unemployment rate in Tucson is currently 2.9 percent, and in the high-tech field it is even less. In an economy the size of Tucson's, that is essentially zero unemployment, as we will always have about 3 percent of the city's work force between jobs.

No one is losing a job to a foreign worker. But you can bet that if these companies can't find the workers they need in this country, they will have no choice but to pick up and move abroad. Then they will be able to hire these engineers and scientists for less, which will only damage our country's ability to compete.

-Tarik H. Sultan is a Tucson lawyer.-

© Copyright 2000 Arizona Daily Star