Bush hints door may open for more tech workers

NEWS Details of President Bush's plan to tackle illegal immigration remain fuzzy, but the programme could create a new way for technology employers to bring in foreign workers.

If so, the stage will be set for another round of debates about the practice of temporarily importing guest workers for tech tasks -- already a sore spot for critics of the H-1B and L-1 visa programmes.

"Should the Bush proposal be implemented, it would be disastrous for American programmers, engineers and everyone in the country who can't make a living on the stock market alone," said John Miano, founder of software programmer advocacy group the Programmer's Guild.

Bush earlier this month announced his plan for a new temporary-worker programme. The programme would "match willing foreign workers with willing US employers when no Americans can be found to fill the jobs." In a speech announcing the plan, the president seemed to focus on less-skilled workers employed in the United States. "We see millions of hard-working men and women condemned to fear and insecurity in a massive, undocumented economy," Bush said. "The system is not working."

But in a speech last week at the Cato Institute, an administration official indicated the programme could extend to highly skilled positions as well. Margaret Spellings, assistant to the president for domestic policy, said details of the programme have yet to be worked out. But she said the programme will be "non-sector specific" and mentioned nurses and teachers as possible workers covered by the programme.

Nursing and teaching are relatively skilled job categories, which suggests that programmers or other tech professionals could be affected as well.

Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) trade group, said he has heard conflicting messages about the administration's new temporary worker plan. "It is still not clear whether the Bush plan will cover all worker categories or [only] lower-wage categories for which there are no existing workable admissions programmes," Miller said. "I have heard people from the administration state both sides, which makes me believe they are not clear themselves yet."

Miller said he would be surprised if the plan, when it is offered in detail, includes skilled worker categories. He noted that temporary employment programmes for skilled workers already exist.

Two such programmes are the H-1B visa and L-1 visa programmes. The controversial H-1B visa programme is designed to let US employers import highly skilled workers, such as computer programmers, into the country for a period of up to six years.

The L-1 visa programme allows companies to temporarily bring in employees from other countries for managerial or executive work or work that entails specialised knowledge. There is no annual cap for the number of L-1 visas that the government can give out, nor is there a required pay rate. In the H-1B programme, employers are supposed to pay a prevailing wage.

Both programmes have been blamed for making it harder for domestic techies to find work in a grim job market. India-based companies in particular have come under scrutiny for making heavy use of temporary visas and for the way their use of the visas may have accelerated the shift of tech work abroad -- another source of anxiety for US programmers and engineers.

ITAA's Miller defends the two visa programmes, though he said he's heard concerns that L-1 visas have been given out to individuals without "specialised" knowledge. He thinks that if the Bush proposal does include skilled temporary worker programmes, it "would include some provision to protect the wages and working conditions of similarly situated US workers."

In his early January speech, Bush said: "Decent, hard-working people will now be protected by labour laws, with the right to change jobs, earn fair wages, and enjoy the same working conditions that the law requires for American workers."

But he did not mention a requirement that employers must pay a prevailing wage -- nor does a White House document outlining the plan.

Miano of the Programmer's Guild doubted the Bush plan would garner enough political support to pass. Although he opposes it, he sees a silver lining to the proposal: It calls attention to existing guest worker programmes and may derail attempts to raise the annual cap for H-1B visas from its current level of 65,000.

"It has publicised the H-1B and L-1 programmes," Miano said. "Hopefully, Congress will be bogged down with this nonsense so much that they will not be able to expand H-1B."