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Despite all the attention on work visas for skilled
professionals, especially those in the high-tech trade, the
Immigration and Naturalization Service doesn't check up on the
workers once they arrive in the United States.
As long as the paperwork looks right, a person claiming to be a
computer engineer can come to Silicon Valley and end up washing
dishes in a Bay Area restaurant instead. The INS, which oversees the
H-1B visas for skilled professionals, will never be the wiser unless
someone tips off the agency.
A variety of problems with the H-1B visa program was to be the
focus at a congressional hearing Friday in San Jose sponsored by
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose.
The H-1B visa is reserved for foreign workers with special skills
in jobs that are otherwise hard to fill.
Congress is considering nearly doubling the number of H-1B visas
to 195,000 next year, but as the system now stands there is no
follow-up to see if those workers are performing the jobs listed on
their visas.
"Right now we mainly act on tips," said Eyleen Schmidt, a
spokeswoman for the INS in Washington. "Our enforcement operations
are lead-driven. We do not make any random site visits in H-1B cases
that I know of."
The criminal case of a software consulting business owned by
Berkeley's Reddy family points out flaws in the visa program, which
is designed to help technology and other companies seeking workers
with specialized skills.
Like other cases of H-1B visa fraud around the nation, the
Berkeley case came to the attention of the federal government only
because of a local police investigation.
"There's no follow-up at all," said John Miano, chairman of the
the programmer's guild, a national organization of computer
programmers opposed to H-1B visas. "There's no way to prove that
this person is really working for the company that sponsors him or
doing what he is supposed to be doing."
Silicon Valley companies claim they can't find enough skilled
workers in the United States and have lobbied to increase the number
of visas issued annually, enabling them to recruit overseas. The
program grew from 65,000 to 115,000 last year. All of the available
slots for 1999 were filled in seven months. The openings for 2000
are expected to be filled in March, which means that any employer
who wants to bring in a worker is out of luck until next year.
Led by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, two dozen U.S. senators
sponsored a bill Feb. 9 to increase the number of H-1B visas to
195,000 for each of the next three years.
But the bill does not allocate any money for INS investigations
into possible H-1B fraud. And the INS has no plans to focus on H-1B
cases despite the program's growth.
The INS doesn't regularly visit any companies where H-1B workers
are placed, nor does it have a tracking system to follow up on the
employees.
"Its ridiculous to just take their word for it," Miano said. "If
you make it easy -- and profitable -- to lie and cheat, then of
course people will do just that. If you leave a loophole this big,
someone is going to abuse it. It's inevitable."
The INS was unable to say how many cases of H-1B fraud have been
investigated. Nationwide, H-1B fraud is estimated to comprise less
than 1 percent of known immigration fraud cases. Creating fake
"green cards" (permanent residency permits) or bogus marriages are
still the most common methods for falsifying a person's right to
live and work in the United States.
Consequently, the INS has spent little effort investigating H-1B
complaints. Instead, its primary focus is deporting convicted
felons. Next on the priority list are low-tech industries -- such as
construction, restaurants and janitorial firms -- with long records
of hiring undocumented workers.
"In our 49-county district, I don't know of any cases where we
have a criminal case of H-1B fraud" except the Reddy investigation,
said Sharon Rummery, spokeswoman for the INS in San Francisco.
In that case, multimillionaire landlord Lakireddy Bali Reddy and
his son Vijay Kumar Lakireddy allegedly smuggled several people from
India using fraudulent information on work visas.
Reddy and his son petitioned immigration officials for H-1B and
other visas on behalf of workers they said would be employed at
Active Tech Solutions, a software and temporary staffing company the
family owns in Berkeley.
Instead, the workers were employed at Reddy's apartment
buildings, office buildings and restaurants, according to the
indictment.
The indictment also alleges that two teenagers were smuggled into
the country by Reddy under the false pretense that they were
daughters of a man who fraudulently obtained an H-1B visa. The two
girls were allegedly used for sex by Reddy. The allegations only
came to light after one of the girls died of carbon monoxide
poisoning the day before Thanksgiving.
Critics said the tragic death of the young girl illustrates flaws
in the H-1B visa program. Beyond the Reddy case, critics said the
whole program is ripe for abuse.
UC-Davis Professor Norman Matloff noted that the girls' purported
father -- a civil engineer with no computer skills -- was able to
easily obtain an H-1B visa. That man, referred to in court records
as Venkateswara Vemireddy, ended up washing dishes and wiping tables
at Reddy's Pasand restaurant in Berkeley.
"To me, a case like this is absolutely appalling," Matloff said.
But he added that there are probably many other illegitimate H-1B
cases out there with less tragic consequences.
The H-1B program, created in 1990 with a cap of 65,000 visas per
year, grants visas for up to six years to noncitizens with college
degrees. The maximum period of admission in the United States is
three years, but it can be extended for three more.
The H-1B visa category includes specialty occupations which
require a bachelor's degree, or fashion models of international
acclaim. Typical H-1B applicants include architects, engineers,
computer programmers, accountants, doctors and college professors.
To get an H-1B visa, a company must tell the U.S. Labor
Department that it can't find local talent for the job. The company
agrees to hire the worker, then files an application with the INS.
If approved, that application is taken to a U.S. consulate in the
worker's country, where the State Department reviews the
application.
"Probably 99 percent of people here under H-1B are here legally
doing what they were hired to do," said Thomas Homan, assistant
director of investigation in INS office in San Antonio. "But in any
program where there is room to make a profit, there will be abuse."
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