He tells me he is a computer professional with over 20 years experience. He was laid off and has yet to find a job. He states: I believe [my employer] has a history of hiring H1B computer personnel at the expense of qualified American citizens. Another Iowan from Cedar Falls wrote in support of our review of the H1B program. He Is a computer programmer with a masters degree and over 20 years of work experience in that field. He says: Despite all of my qualifications. in the last four years I have applied to over 3.700 positions and have received no job offers. He believes he is in constant competition with H1B visa holders. I received a letter from a man In Arizona who works for a company that employs dozens of H1B workers. When he asked his supervisor why so many foreign nationals were being hired. the head of human resources said: If the company has an American and a person from India. both with the same skill set. the company will hire the person from India because they can pay them less. These are firsthand stories from U.S. workers. I ask those begging for an increase in foreign workers to explain these cases to me. Why are Americans struggling to get jobs as software developers. data processors. and program analysts? Senator DURBIN and I inquired with several foreignbased companies that use the H1B program. Rather than sending a letter to all companies that use the program. which would be over 200 companies. we decided to start our investigation with foreignbased entities. Our intention was to learn how foreign companies are using our visas. We learned that the top nine foreignbased companies used 20.000 visas in 2006. Think of what a high percentage that is of the 85.000. just nine foreignbased companies. 20.000 visas in the year 2006. I say that twice for emphasis. It just so happens that Indian companies are using onethird of the available visas we allocate each year. but there is more to learn. We are not done asking questions. We. meaning Senator DURBIN and I. continue to talk to U.S.based companies and companies in our own States that use the program. The Citizenship and Immigration Service also has concerns. Our review has prompted discussion among the executive branch. businesses. labor unions. and workers. and workers are the ones we are concerned about. So we are not the only ones asking questions. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service is also worried about fraud in the program. This agencys investigative arm. that subdivision called the Fraud Detection and National Security unit. is doing a fraud assessment of the H1B and L visa programs. I asked the unit to brief my staff on their work. and they reported they are not finished with analyzing the data. Senator COLLINS of Maine and I put the agency on notice that we are anxiously awaiting this report so we may continue our quest to reform the program appropriately.
Identified stereotypes
H1B visa holders are being hired at the expense of qualified American citizens and are paid less.