A U.S. Senate proposal for a guest- worker program wouldn’t do enough to provide needed foreign labor, said representatives of high-technology, hotel and some other industries that want immigration reform.
However, other employers, such as Greeley meatpacker Swift & Co., generally support the proposal, designed to increase the number of foreign workers and create a path to citizenship for undocumented workers now in the United States.
The suggested increase in the cap on H-1B visas that Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker Intel Corp. and other high-tech companies rely on to import highly skilled workers is too small, said Jenifer Verdery, Intel director of workforce policy.
The bill would raise the cap on H-1B visas from 65,000 to 115,000, or up to 180,000 if demand were high.
“This year, we had over 130,000 applicants in the first day of filing,” Verdery said. “Starting out with 115,000 is really not adequate.”
The reform measure could actually make it tougher to find employees with the specific skills and experience high- technology companies need in the fast- changing high-tech world, she said.
Companies such as Intel, which has a plant in Colorado Springs, recruit specific foreigners who possess the precise skills they need. The reform measure would create a point system that rewards people with advanced degrees and special skills.
“It eliminates the ability of employers to recruit specific talent,” Verdery said.
The hotel-and-lodging and other service industries rely heavily on temporary workers from outside the country who come to the United States via an H-2B visa program.
The Senate proposal would replace the H-2B visa with a Y-2B visa program that would raise the number of visas available for low-skilled service workers – now capped at 66,000 per year – to 100,000, said Ilene Kam sler, head of the Colorado Hotel & Lodging Association. And the total could be adjusted upward each year based on need, she said.
Under the bill, most of the workers could stay for 10 months at a time during up to three two-year stints – provided they leave for one year after working for two consecutive stints.
The leave-and-return provision would create turnover problems for businesses such as the Broadmoor, a luxury hotel in Colorado Springs. That’s because the hotel would have to train replacements for those who couldn’t return during the year-long hiatus, Kamsler said.
“They may come back, but in the meantime we have had to hire someone else,” she said.
The present H-2B program requires foreign workers to stay with the company that got them the visa or be sent home. But the replacement program would let the employee quit and go to another job, a sticking point for businesses that invest time and other resources in arranging for the workers to come here, said Cindy Clark, director of human resources at the Broadmoor.
Swift & Co., which saw meatpacking plants in six states targeted by immigration raids in December, is comfortable with the bill’s overall framework, Swift spokesman Sean McHugh said.
“We are doing all we can to push this legislative process forward. Comprehensive immigration reform would greatly benefit Swift and the country as a whole,” he said.
Labor unions object to the guest-worker plan, saying it would depress wages and create a class of workers with no job rights.
“It creates a permanent underclass in the workforce. The fact that they are here temporarily and at the whim of their employer means they don’t enjoy the rights that other workers do,” said Mitch Ackerman, president of SEIU Local 105.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
