High-tech corporations in search of cheap labor are pressuring Congress (with sizeable campaign contributions) to nearly double the number H-1B visas for foreign high-tech workers competing for your jobs.

Computer-industry lobbyists and many in the media claim that there is a shortage of high-tech workers, yet the facts tell a different story.

No credible study has found a shortage of high-tech workers to exist, including reports from the General Accounting Office and the Department of Labor. Employers only hire about 2% percent of their software applicants.

This spring, American colleges and universities will graduate 160,000 trained high-tech workers. The good news is that there are 140,000 jobs available in these fields. The bad news is that Congress is considering importing an additional 195,000 foreign high-tech workers to fill these jobs at lower wages. Worse yet, careers are short in the programming field. It is often difficult for programmers to get work in their field after age 40 because employers don’t want to hire older workers and they don’t have to with a constant influx of younger foreign-born workers (H-1Bs) who will work for less.

You and your parents are spending thousands of dollars so that you can be educated and supposedly get a well paying job in your field. Up to half of you may not be able to work in the programming field.

There is a major push to pass this legislation before you have time to do something about it, but it’s not too late yet.

E-mail your senators, your representative, and the president and tell them you oppose an increase in H-1B visas for foreign high-tech workers. Write NOW! Go to http://www.vote-smart.org/ for more details.

Mark A. Mendlovitz, Ph.D.

Resident

Los Angeles