Dick Durbin: “I rise to speak about H-1B visas, often called the high-skilled immigration visa. Every year, the U.S. Government issues…”

“I rise to speak about H-1B visas, often called the high-skilled immigration visa. Every year, the U.S. Government issues 85,000 new H-1B visas, including 20,000 for workers with advanced degrees. This is in addition to hundreds of thousands of foreign workers already in the United States on H-1B visas. Beginning on April 1, employers can submit petitions for new H-1B visas. Every year, within a few days, the government announces that it has received many more petitions for visas than the number of visas available. The government then conducts a random lottery to decide which employers will receive the visas. Every year this leads to a hue and cry from our business community about the need to increase the annual cap for H-1B visas. Like clockwork, this process played out last week, just as it does every year. Let's take a look at what happened. When most people think of H-1B visas, they think of big tech companies like Microsoft, Google, and Apple hiring top-notch computer engineers, paying them top dollar to come in from overseas. But here is the reality. In fact, the top recipients of H-1B visas are foreign companies that use loopholes in the law to displace qualified American workers and send American jobs offshore. In 2013, outsourcing firms received more than 50 percent of the annual H-1B visa cap. Think about that.…”