Legal foreign workers caught in immigration stalemate
WASHINGTON -- Foreign workers like software expert Vikas Chowdhry from India and Roberto Villarauz, a janitor from Mexico, abide by the nation's immigration laws.
They have skills their employers say are necessary to meet industry demands for highly skilled workers or for jobs Americans don't want.
Yet both are among hundreds of thousands of legal foreign workers, including software engineers, hotel employees, seafood processors, landscapers and vegetable pickers, who are in the U.S. temporarily but are caught in the polarizing debate over illegal immigration that casts uncertainty over their livelihood and future.
Legal foreign workers like Chowdhry and Villarauz might not get help until after next year's elections because Congress is deadlocked on any changes to the nation's immigration laws.
Congress defeated legislation this year to overhaul the immigration system, which would have extended and improved seasonal, high-tech and agriculture guest worker programs. About 575,000 legal foreign workers are currently in the U.S. under these guest worker programs, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
These temporary workers hold U.S. government-issued "H-visas" that proponents argue should be revised by Congress to help legal foreign workers and their employers.
For example, tens of thousands of seasonal workers at hotels, resorts and other small businesses could lose their jobs unless Congress renews a separate law that allows the government to issue more than the 66,000 H-2B visas it is supposed to be limited to. The exemption expired Sept. 30.
High-tech workers and their employers want improvements in the H-1B program, which has an annual cap of 65,000 visas. For the 2008 fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, the limit would drop to 58,200 unless Congress says otherwise.
Agriculture workers, growers, and farmers are pushing to streamline the H-2A visa program by supporting yet another bill that would offer legal status and possible U.S. citizenship for 1.5 million farm workers.
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