Although the bill has made substantial progress in the Senate, the House does not yet have companion legislation at the time of going to press. Lamar Smith, R-TX, architect of the 1966 restrictive immigration law and chair of the House Immigration Subcommittee, has indicated that he will introduce similar legislation in the House. Opponents complain that the H-1B program serves as a vehicle to bring in cheap labor into the United States. They further allege that young college graduates and foreigners are preferred over older Americans above 40, and that the shortage is artificial. However, the H-1B program, designed for highly specialized professionals, mandates that the employer must pay the prevailing wage to the foreign worker.
Abusers are subject to severe sanctions and penalties.
Another argument that opponents advance is that even if employers pay prevailing wages, the influx of foreign workers from countries with lower standards of living depress wages generally. But with recruiters searching the world over for computer programmers, market forces would render it impossible for an employer to retain foreign workers at lower pay scales. Foreign programmers are offered extremely attractive salaries, and the fact that the visa ties them to a specific employer does not stop them from being lured by other employers with even more lucrative offers. While there may be some basis to the fact that U.S. workers ought to be equipped with the skills to take up these jobs, the reality is that there are not too many at present, and it will take years to churn out more graduates. Also, the Year 2000 problem has to be fixed in a finite amount of time.