[ALBSA-Info] Wall St. Journal

[KreshnikBejko]

March 14, 2000


INS's in a state of disarray. Woe to us whose life is in their hands.


Work Week

ALAN GREENSPAN is embraced as a champion of the huddled
masses.

Unions, trade groups and others seeking expanded immigration have
adopted the Fed chairman as an unofficial spokesman after his recent
remarks that laws should be relaxed to offset worker shortages. His every
utterance on the issue is reprinted in press releases and newsletters.

"You have Alan Greenspan saying that a big threat to our continued
prosperity is the dwindling number of workers," says Frank Sharry of the
National Immigration Forum, an advocacy group. "So God has spoken."
The remarks are also cheered by John Gay of the Essential Worker
Immigration Coalition, whose members have testified in Congress on
worker shortages.

"We always love the chairman, he's right on," says Mr. Gay.

IT'S A NEW YEAR, but the same old disputes arise over guest farm
workers.

Protests and rallies were held in various cities over the Agricultural Job
Opportunity Benefits and Security Act, now before the Senate. Among
other provisions, it would allow laborers who work on farms at least 180
days for five consecutive years to apply for legal status. Critics say that
growers haven't experienced the consistently high worker shortages that
would justify the bill, and that the bill gives growers a captive labor force
while helping them avoid federal sanctions for hiring illegal workers.

Growers say it will ease cumbersome regulation, improve worker housing
and boost wages. But if growers "can recruit workers from Bangladesh,
Jamaica and Southern Mexico, why can't they recruit legal workers from
Central California and South Texas?" asks Joel Najar of the National
Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group, which opposes the
measure.

THE INS IS KEEPING a close count on H-1B visas.

As of Feb. 15, the Immigration and Naturalization Service had approved
67,000 requests from firms seeking to hire foreigners with high-tech and
other skills the companies say can't be found here. Congress set 2000's
limit at 115,000 of the visas.

KPMG LLP is reviewing INS records because the INS can't say how
many H-1B visas were issued last year. The consultants were hired after
the INS discovered it mistakenly awarded between 10,000 and 20,000
more than allowed. Meanwhile, Congress' efforts to raise the cap don't
quell the H-1B debate. High-tech firms -- the biggest users of the visas --
claim a shortage of 269,000 workers.

Organized labor disputes the number, saying industry wants to replace
U.S. workers with cheaper foreigners.

LOCAL JOB-TRAINING programs benefit from specialty-worker fees.
U.S. companies pay $500 for each skilled foreigner they hire under the
H-1B program. Last summer, the Labor Department used the fees for
$12.5 million in grants for training U.S. workers in computer, science and
health-care jobs. About $41 million has been collected since the fund was
set up in 1998. The money is shared with the National Science
Foundation, which awards college scholarships in math, science and
technology.

POOR RURAL AND URBAN hospitals facing nursing shortages are still
awaiting foreign nurses allowed to work here temporarily under a law
passed last fall. The law provides 500 temporary visas annually for nurses
who may stay for as long as three years. But the INS is still drafting rules.

NEW TELEPHONE HOTLINES aim to prevent job discrimination
against legal immigrants. The program, launched last July by the Justice
Department, fields about 1,500 calls a week from employers with
questions about rules on hiring immigrants and for immigrant workers with
complaints about abusive employers.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FINES businesses for immigrant
discrimination.

A Maryland food processor last week agreed to pay $97,000 in civil
penalties and to contribute $135,000 to a worker-security fund to settle
discrimination complaints filed on behalf of more than 660 immigrant
workers. The case grew out of a complaint brought by a food workers'
union against Townsend Culinary Inc., Laurel, Md. That complaint alleged
that Townsend illegally fired two Salvadoran women. The Justice
Department's Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair
Employment Practices sued Townsend in 1997.

An administrative law judge last week ruled that Townsend's conduct
constituted a pattern or practice of document abuse and discrimination. In
another case, La Trattoria, a Houston restaurant, agreed to pay $12,000
to settle allegations that its owner and other staff members repeatedly
called a former waiter of Iranian descent a "camel."

Both companies have denied that they discriminated.

THE CHECKOFF: A federal appeals court rules that a foreign
whistle-blower who flees to the U.S. to avoid retribution may seek political
asylum... . Since October, the INS has seized more than 3,500 fraudulent
immigration documents in Chicago, including green cards, work permits
and citizenship papers. About 15,000 fake immigration papers were seized
there the previous year.

-- Marjorie Valbrun

Write to Marjorie Valbrun at marjorie.valbrun at wsj.com