High-tech worker bill deficient, auditors say: Lawmakers work behind the scenes to merge farm and high-tech measures

WASHINGTON -- The high-tech worker immigration program Congress wants to expand is undermined by flaws that need correcting, federal investigators say.

The weaknesses newly identified in the politically popular H-1B program arise just as Silicon Valley presses for a big increase in the number of the visas issued annually. Central Valley farmers are simultaneously pressing for their own foreign guest-worker program, which some hope can move in tandem with high-tech's wish list.

"There's still a great deal of distance between the advocates for the growers and the advocates for the farmworkers, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility that those distances can get bridged," Rep. Howard Berman, D-Los Angeles, said in an interview.

Berman is discussing with Ceres Democrat Gary Condit, a member of the House Agriculture Committee, as well as with key senators, the prospects for a mutually acceptable guest-worker and legalization plan.

The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote Thursday on one version of the agricultural guest-worker plan.

This version, written by Tracy Republican Richard Pombo, includes neither the worker protections nor legalization options immigrant advocates insist upon. Behind the scenes -- though some participants voice more optimism than others -- is where the serious negotiating will take place.

"It's the most positive we've ever seen it in a long, long time," Manuel Cunha, president of the Fresno-based Nisei Farmers League, said Monday of the private discussions.

Because only a few weeks remain for action this year, the new General Accounting Office report could prove particularly influential as lawmakers weigh immigration requests from both high-tech and farmers.

The GAO is the congressional watchdog agency that previously has raised doubts about whether there's a national farmworker shortage that justifies a new guest-worker program. The investigative agency's latest report examines the separate H-1B program that allows skilled foreigners -- nearly half of them from India -- into the United States for as much as six years of work.

Despite success at helping employers, GAO auditors conclude, the H-1B program is also "vulnerable to abuse" and plagued by "delays and administrative problems." As with the agricultural programs, moreover, auditors note some skeptics "believe that high-tech employers have exaggerated the need for foreign workers."

The auditors don't necessarily endorse this view, though they do highlight program problems.

"The program is vulnerable to abuse, both by employers who do not have bona fide jobs to fill or who do not meet required labor conditions, and by potential workers who present false credentials," the GAO said.

Auditors cited "increasing instances of program abuse" in which immigrant workers were being paid less than they were supposed to be, or who got a visa but not a job. Systemic problems allowed the Immigration and Naturalization Service last year to admit at least 136,888 H-1B visa applicants, even though the legal limit was supposed to be 115,000.

California lawmakers, as well as presidential candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush, support expanding the H-1B high-tech program beyond the 115,000 annual visas currently permitted. The visa total is soon scheduled to fall back to 65,000, but high-tech's friends on Capitol Hill have proposed moving this to 200,000.

"We're continuing to press the White House and Democratic leadership to recognize that we need H-1B legislation passed, and to separate out the other issues," said Margita Thompson, spokeswoman for the Palo Alto-based TechNet group that represents some 200 high-tech companies.

Berman and some other Democrats hope the H-1B issue can help create momentum for other immigration proposals that include providing green cards for Central American refugees.

Different unresolved questions face the agricultural guest-worker proposals. These include what kind of workplace, transportation and housing protections foreign guest-workers can expect. There also are questions about what kind of "adjustment of status" program might permit illegal immigrants currently in this country to eventually become legal residents.

© Copyright 2000 The Fresno Bee