Rocki's Rants English 102

Reflective Cover Letter

2007-12-06T14:26:00.000-08:00

Rocki Passano

Eng 102-2315

Professor Devon Adams

Dear Eng 102-2315 Class and Professor Adams:

The “Course Outcomes” did not include several areas critical to this course for this student; organization, time-management and technology. These were the first challenges to be addressed which were totally unexpected. These issues force one to come to terms with technology skill deficiencies, learn new tools, new software, and basically overcome any internet or technological phobias that might exist. The internet has always been a scientific source of information and data but has evolved into something much more, which is a little scary. The demands of this class along with other classes, professional, and personal commitments will require maximum efficient utilization of time. Organizational skills must be honed and refined; finally personal commitment and patience will be necessary in order to achieve success in this class. Establishing a daily schedule and discussing the schedule with family and or significant others was necessary because outside influences can distract from accomplishing goals set for the semester.

In an attempt to keep my personal bias out of my document, I relinquished my own confidence in my writing skills. I wanted to keep the writing concise and succinct. Additionally, I placed importance on presenting the facts in a non biased manner, so much so that I lost my own perspective on the purpose of writing this document.

I prepared for the writing process by creating a research log. I took advantage of the help offered in The Bedford Researcher and the BedfordResearcher.com tools and activities as well as the websites provided by the instructor to began work exploring, choosing, and narrowing a topic. Next, I collected, transcribed, and organized all my notes and recordings; next, I began browsing the internet and talking to friends about potential topics, always taking notes. The Bedford Research Narrow Topic Research Plan was utilized to refine the topic, and make it obvious that the topics I had chosen were too broad and required additional attention. Answering those nine questions assist in narrowing the focus of the topic and also in defining the research question for the topic. Another important area vital to the process of writing a research paper includes evaluating articles or documents for a research paper with a questioning attitude and a sense of detective work. Developing an ability to identify an articles relevance to the topic and not spending too much time evaluating documents, articles, data bases, blogs, and web sites are vital and important to this process. Prior to this class it was easy to spend lots of time searching the web reading unusable information and basically wasting valuable time.

It was important to be constantly aware of the chosen topic and the research question; being vigilant for information that potentially can be useful. Specific emphasis was placed on collecting information from each perspective of the research question and topic, because information can come from many media. Identifying the personal perspective, making a decision on additional or optional avenues of gaining data such as taking a survey, or interviewing people in the area of expertise for the topic and developing appropriate questions for the survey or scripts can also provide useful information. Creating a Thesis Plan and remembering to read and evaluate for relevance, credibility and accuracy are important tasks in the writing process. Assembling all the notes, conversations, documents, articles, recordings etc. together to create a cohesive research document at first appears to be a monumental, but approaching it using the tools available through The Bradford Researcher helps to easily facilitate organizing data, by creating a cluster or an old fashion outline. With the results of exercises using these tools I began to write a rough draft. The writing process continues with the definition, refinement, revision, and review process which can include multiple cycles of these processes before producing a final document. I found it surprising that I so thoroughly enjoyed the research and investigative aspects of the process, maybe there is a research career in my future. It is important that we do not simply accept as truth information in newspapers, on television, in magazines, on the web as the whole truth. So much of our lives is out of our control and requires that we obtain as much information as possible in order to form sound judgments, especially when we go to the election booth to vote.

The area that was most difficult for me is the MLA style formatting and MLA style for citing sources. Large data tables available from credible and authentic websites should have been designed more efficiently prior to being inserted into the document. Another area where I experience confusion was the way a website is displayed in a document. In most software programs, when typing web addresses, the program will “correctly format” the address. When I would type a web address, with the <>, http:, //, www, name, @, site name, and domain my software automatically converts the type into a linkable address usually without “<>, http:, and //”, which I think most software does today. The solution may simply be I need to immediately update edition of the MLA Handbook, reread the latest version and if I still have problems, consult an expert.

Other area that I experience difficulty was my personal investment in the topic which could be viewed as biased so I attempted to temper the opposition rather than expressing my true feelings. Objectivity in all writing is necessary as is in my opinion, passion, however too much of anything can exhibit bias in either the pro or con aspect of a topic. Therefore balance is a necessary commodity in writing of any kind. This is an area that is identifiable in the refinement, revision, and review process but should always be monitored as I have a tendency to get carried away.

An area in which I think my writing improved was in linking everything together into a cohesive document; from the opening statement to the conclusion, I feel I was able to tie the ending sentence of a paragraph to the opening sentence in the next paragraph. Hopefully, my final grade will evidence that I did accomplish all of the outcomes of this course.

My Final Portfolio contains comments and suggestions at the beginning of each graded final writing project. I hope by using this process I have met the requirements of this assignment.

I wish to than each of my classmates and professor for taking the time to review my submissions and provide me with comments.

Good Luck in your future endeavors and Happy Holidays!

Rocki Passano

Final WP#3 w/Suggestions for Rvision

2007-12-06T14:17:00.000-08:00

Rocki Passano

Eng 12-2315

Professor Devon Adams

5 December 2007

WP#3 Final with Revision and Suggestions –

I made stupid mistakes in this writing that should not have occurred. I lost the focus of my thesis in the first part of the paper. I should have included the following paragraph as the second part of the opening of this paper. The course outcome associated is – “Organize writing to support a central idea through unity, coherence and logical development appropriate to a specific writing context”.

“Do we absolutely need to increase the H-1B Visa Program at this time, with so many U.S. high technology workers unemployed? The high technology corporations have become acquainted with the benefits afforded them by employing H-1B Visa applicants, including a reduction in overhead cost in the non-profit cost centers in fiscal budgets, but more importantly corporations are generating higher profits as a result. Until very recently the main reasoning utilized by high tech corporations to justify the cry for an increase in H-1B Visa Program quotas has been a lack of educated Americans to fill the vacant positions. But Americans are producing undergraduate degree graduates in record numbers in the technology field many who are unable to gain jobs in the areas of their degrees. Now, high technology corporations are using the reasoning that these educated Americans do not possess the necessary skills sets required to fill the vacancies in the organizations. Yet Americans are expected to believe that H-1B Visa applicants are more qualified with the specific skill sets required to fill these positions than Americans who have been in the work force in these same positions who can not find work in their fields today.”

I felt it was important to be specific about the Y2K problem because it had a large impact on the need for additional high technology workers. Technically, I am very handicapped and I took a short cut I shouldn’t have. However, my husband was an expert on Y2K issues, though not published on this issue, so I should not have used him as a source, which I forgot to cite. I intended to show that even though Y2K was an issue that created an inflated yet temporary demand for an increase in the H-1B Visa quotas. I lost my focus again and questioned my own writing ability.

The information regarding my personal experiences and those my friends Ron and Jacqui Catterall, I felt was vital to this document to show that H-1B Visa Program was flawed. I should have handled it more like an interview with no personal pronouns just first names. This deduction is related to course outcome – Use appropriate conventions in writing, including consistent voice, tone, diction, grammar, and mechanics.

Rocki Passano
Professor Devon C. Adams
Eng 102-2513
15 November 2007
H-1B Visa Program -- Are Increases Necessary?

High technology corporations, special interest groups, Representatives, Senators and Governors are all calling for increases in the H-1B Visa Program quotas on the basis that sufficiently educated, highly skilled Americans are not available to fill their vacancies. good introductory to your paper .. mature control of language. -Devoncadams 12/2/07 3:07 PMU.S. after graduation. Foreign companies that have opened offices in the U.S.
During the 1990s, the high technology industry was evolving and invading every aspect of daily life from personal computers to e-mail; to intelligent computer chips in household items, automobiles, and washing machines. Sweeping changes in high technology trade programs as well as changes in telecommunications monopolies (i.e., telephone television, cable, satellite) were in progress. Public school classrooms across the country were being wired for internet access during weekend volunteer programs. Venture capital money freely flowed into Silicon Valley enticing entrepreneurs to begin internet start-up companies that would become Yahoo and Google. This great unplanned success overwhelmed the existing technology workforce creating a demand for qualified skilled high technology workers in both the software and hardware fields. During this same time, Congress had undertaken a major reform of the nations Immigration Act.Not sure where your thesis is in here. -Devoncadams 12/2/07 3:07 PM

The H-1B non-immigrant visa program was established with the U.S. Immigration Act of 1990 to assist U.S. employers in temporarily filling certain positions with highly-skilled foreign workers (GAO). Congress had limited the number of H-1B visas to 65,000 each year with an additional exemption of 20,000 for foreign workers who had graduated from a U.S. college or university with an advanced degree, making the actual total of H-1B visa applicants 85,000 each year.
The Y2K problem created a major demand for additional highly skilled software programmers. The Y2K problem is in three parts, according to A. Passanoaccording to your husband? I realize it affects him, but that's not to say he's a qualified, published expert. There's not even a citation below -Devoncadams 12/2/07 3:07 PM. 1.) Software and databases calculate on or were written with dates with two-digit years; 2.) every year divisible by 4 is a leap year. 2000 is divisible by 4, which make it a leap year. Except years ending in 00 aren’t leap years. However, years divisible by 400 are leap years, which finally makes the year 2000 a leap year; and 3.) That means that following February 28, 2000, software that does not know that the year 2000 is a leap year will use the Julian date (numbers of the day in the year) wrong for the rest of the year, and will get the day of the week wrong forever. There are other problems with dates, but this represents the major Y2K Problem. All this meant that every piece of hardware, every software package and program, every embedded system and every data set could be affected. This paragraph is mostly a single definition that could be paraphrased more succinctly. -Devoncadams 12/2/07 3:08 PM

With the Y2K Problem looming the need arose for Congress to temporarily increase the H-1B visa quota for 1999 and 2000 to 115,000 when it passed the American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act of 1999. Congress again increased the H-1B visa quota to 195,000 for three years (2001, 2002, and 2003) with the passage of the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act in 2000, reverting back in 2004 to a cap of 65,000 H-1B visa applicants each year (GAO).More of your own commentary here. -Devoncadams 12/2/07 3:09 PM

The pressure to increase the H-1B visa quotas has been consistent since 2003. And today, it is stronger than ever. Corporations, several Governors and Senators (Letter) and special interest groups advocate a desperate need to increase current quotas again, citing a lack of qualified skilled Americans to fill their vacancies. Over 125,000 applications were filed for the 65,000 openings by the second day of accepting applications in 2007. By July, 2007 Department of Homeland Security decided not to accept anymore applications for the 2008 fiscal year because they had more than enough applicants (NumbersUSA). During a vote in July 2007, Comprehensive Immigration Reform (including H-1Bs) was defeated; forcing Microsoft’s CEO Bill Gates to plan the opening of a new development center in Vancouver Canada, “…allows the company to recruit and retain highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S.” (Broache and Fried). Additionally, Department of Labor records indicate Sun Microsystems has applied for a steadily increasing number of H-1B visas: 751 in 1999; 1870 in 2000: 5179 in 2001. Why do we care? -Devoncadams 12/2/07 3:09 PM

Many advocates for an increase in the H-1B Visa Program feel America is losing its edge in technology and science; pointing to the erosion of science and math education in U.S. high schools as a key issue. “High school students in the U.S. are consistently outperformed by those from Asian and some European countries on international assessments of math and science (USDE). President Bush decided to do something about the educational situation in our public schools with the “No Child Left Behind” policy in an effort to improve testing scores in public schools. High school drop out rates are on a steady increase over the last several years. This presents a problem because approximately 9% of the fastest-growing jobs of the future will require some post-secondary education or training (USDOL). Between 1989-1990 and 2003 and 2004, of the top five most popular degree fields to decline was engineering and engineering technologies by 5% (USDE).great information, but I need more of your own analysis and commentary built around your facts. -Devoncadams 12/2/07 3:10 PM

The high technology industry has continued its evolution; new companies opened, some failed, some succeeded, and some were merged or acquired. High technology stocks hit record highs then record lows. A majority of the high tech companies from the 1980s and early 1990s do not exist anymore. As the technology revolution slowed its growth, first there was outsourcing then large lay-offs or reductions in force and has lead to an estimate of approximately 100,000 American software engineers currently unemployed (NumbersUSA). These numbers change depending on the data presented. The Department of Labor does not separate the high technology industry into a specific category making it difficult to obtain precise accurate data thus creating the illusion that there is a shortage of workers, see Table #1.

Dr. Norman Matloff, professor of computer science at the University of California-Davis is against H-1B Visa Program. He believes the failure of the current immigration reform bill only delays a predictable increase in the number of H-1B visas and green cards allowing an opportunity for high tech companies to exploit the system. “There’s no shortage of American workers for these jobs,” Matloff says, “I don’t like being lied to and the tech industry is lying to us. They simply want access to cheap labor” (Matloff).type here -Devoncadams 12/2/07 3:11 PM

Federal auditors in a 2006 GAO audit determined that some H-1B workers are underpaid. GAO found approximately 3200 petitions for H-1B visa workers have gained approval even though the employers involved didn’t commit to paying wages at the prevailing rate (GAO).
It has also been suggested that most of the H-1B visas are going to Indian companies that are taking advantage of the situation in order to not hire American workers. Lou Dobbs of CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight reported recently that U.S. lawyers were giving advice to companies seeking foreign tech workers to circumvent regulations requiring Americans be given first shot at jobs that go to H-1B visa holders (NumbersUSA). On the video, it is clear that corporations are looking for any means to avoid hiring U.S. workers for these jobs. One example is the use of head hunters to give the appearance of interviewing U.S. applicants, but never hiring them for the positions. Some head hunting firms have said they receive over one hundred thousand resumes for one position. These resumes are eliminated for lack of degrees, age, or lack of a very specific skill set. Salaries for technology workers have been flat for the past eight years and many U.S. tech workers feel that H-1B Visa Program is partially responsible for the salary situation.
Several Business Week articles point out that the starting salaries for new bachelor’s degree graduates in computer science and electrical engineering, adjusted for inflation, have been flat or falling in recent years. This belies the industry’s claim of a labor shortage. Additional analysis at the master’s degree level shows the same trend, flat wages – contradicting the industry’s claim that workers at the postgraduate level are in especially short supply (Matloff).
Recently, the Programmers Guild, which represents 1,500 technical and professional workers, has drafted its own letter to congressional leaders, warning that the policy called for by Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) in their October 11, 2007 letter, would further disadvantage American workers. The October 11 letter calls for any foreign student with at least a bachelor’s degree in technology or science be granted permanent residency if they get a job offer (Herbst).
I do understand your own personal experience with this issue, albeit I expressed that the final WP#3 should include no personal pronouns. -Devoncadams 12/2/07 3:11 PM
Several years ago, my husband and I both worked in the high-tech industry in Silicon Valley, California. I worked for a technology based trade show company, Interop, that had grown from a weekend bake-off at someone’s home in Monterrey to the top trade show company in the world. Interop was sold to Ziff-Davis after three successful years. Just before this sale became official and public knowledge, Ron and Jacqui Catterall of London, England were persuaded to sell their London based Internet Service Provider Company to Ziff Davis and become part of the ZD organization through the H-1B Visa Program. The Catteralls sold their business and home, packed and shipped their belongings to the U.S. Immediately upon arrival they began working at Ziff Davis; Ron as my immediate Director and Jacqui as my subordinate. They lived in a hotel in Sunnyvale, CA for six months while having a home built in Sunnyvale, CA. Ron, Jacqui, my husband and I became friends and often socialized together. Two and one half years later, during a dinner party entertaining friends, Immigration and Naturalization Service arrived at their door. INS declared the Catteralls were illegally in the United States and had thirty days to leave the country for good. Ron and Jacqui were under the impression that Ziff Davis was processing the paper work to obtain their green cards for them in accordance with their agreement of employment and the sale of their IP Company. ZD failed to notify Ron and Jacqui they would not be applying for their green card; or that ZD would be terminating their employment immediately the next day. ZD had contacted INS prior to advising the Catteralls of the change in their status or of their pending termination. The Catteralls moved to MexicoU.S. It was all very strange as Ziff Davis had assisted when the Catteralls needed social security numbers so they could pay SSI and all associated income taxes and disability. Ziff Davis eventually sold Interop+Networld (the trade show company) to a Korean/Japanese conglomerate and I left the company. My husband became employed with RedBack, Inc. and we moved to Arizona.
At RedBack, Inc. my husband traveled ninety percent of the time, mostly to Europe, Asia, throughout the U.S. and Canada and occasionally to New Zealand and Australia. When not flying all over the world, he was a technical instructor, training customer engineers on RedBack’s equipment. Shortly after the high tech stock bubble burst, mergers and acquisitions and then corporate downsizing, my husband is training hundreds of H-1Bs to do (what my husband was doing) installations and training. Six months later my husband and several hundred of his co-workers were laid off in a reduction in force. This had been a start up company when my husband started with RedBack. After these employees helped to bring the RedBack to the top of its field and to become a top competitor for Cisco, the company just let them go. It took my husband five years with out of pocket expenses to keep his skill set competitive and leading edge to find another job in the technology field as a contractor with no benefits. During the five years, my husband sent out thousands of resumes and went to hundreds of interviews. But of course he is well over 36 (the industry nondiscriminatory age cap – the high technology industry has stated that younger (under age 40) employees are more desirable ) and he was never hired. Two or three H-1Bs could be hired instead of my husband for less than he would cost.
I don’t like being lied to in much the same way as Norman Matloff, I want to know the real reason behind this push for more foreign labor into the U.S. and I don’t think I am alone. Corporations have a fiduciary right to keep cost down and profits up for their shareholders which in some ways seems to justify their need for H-1B workers. If the motivation for an increase of H-1B Visas is strictly financial, then tell the truth. Amazingly, Americans can adapt, improvise and overcome should the need present itself (i.e., the Space Race), but we don’t like being lied to.
The H-1B Visa Program does not just affect the labor sector or the high tech industry; it has a tendency to set policy. As corporations are able to keep overhead cost down (labor cost, benefits, building and maintenance, etc) and profits up; if successful it becomes a model for conducting a successful business. Filtering into all levels like a domino effect. Eventually, a majority of the companies in the area are following the model; next local companies and local government; then state and federal governments are following the model as well. “Economists, of course, will tell you there's no such thing as a labor shortage. From a worker's viewpoint, many so-called shortages could quickly be solved if employers were to offer more money. And worldwide, millions of people still can't find jobs. The strongest evidence that there's no general shortage today is that overall worker pay has barely outpaced inflation. In the U.S., the share of national income going to corporate profit, rather than, say, labor, is hovering around a 50-year high. With so many people newly available for work in China, India, and the former Soviet Union, the only thing that could cause a real shortage would be "a global pandemic that kills millions of people," Harvard University economist Richard B. Freeman wrote in a research paper in September” (News & Insights). Obviously changes are needed in the H-1B Visa Program as well as in the administration of the program. There are many facets to the dilemma facing U.S. high technology workers, foreigners who want to work in the U.S., and corporations. Congress must have all the facts and the ability to investigate the entire picture prior to making any logical decisions. Real determinations must be assessed for where the need for exceptional high tech workers exist, mechanisms to ensure that there are no qualified Americans and finally issuing visas for those positions that are vitally necessary. Verifying that those workers are being fairly treated would be required to ensure fair and equitable treatment. Additionally, those that abuse and misuse the program should be penalized and/or punished. Anything less will not eliminate the problem or resolve the issue to meet the needs of all involved.
I would think a more balanced approach between the positivities and negativities of this topic would have made for a stronger developed paper. Now, the tables were what occluded you from uploading the file. I think the tables were actually too much, and they should be at the end of your paper rather than in the middle. You have some wonderful information and your structure is done well, albeit I needed more persuasion and analysis. 90% -Devoncadams 12/2/07 3:12 PM

Works Cited

Broache, Anne and Fried, Ina. “Microsoft sings ‘O Canada’ amid Immigration challenges”. C/NETNews.com. 5 Jul 2007, San Francisco, CA CNET Networks, Inc. Business Source Premier, Mesa Community College Mesa, AZ 28 Sep 2007

Daniels, M., Doyle, J., Freudenthal, D., Gibbons, J., Gregoire, C., Napolitano, J., Patrick, D., Pawlenty, T., Perry, R., Ritter, B., Schwarzenegger, S., Sebelius, K., Spitzer, E. “Letter to H. Reid, M. McConnell, N. Pelosi, J. Boehner”. 11 Sep 2007 U.S. House & U.S. Senate Washington, D.C.

Herbst, Moira. “The Great Tech Worker Divide”. Business Week – Technology. 10 Oct 2007. EBSCOHOST Mesa Community College Mesa, AZ, 28 Oct 2007.

Matloff, Norman. “Should the U.S. increase its H-1B visa program? CON: Wages belie claims of a labor shortage”. San Francisco Chronicle. 7 Dec 2006 EBSCOHost, Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ 28 Oct 2007

News & Insights “Where Are All The Workers Gone”. Business Week – Technology. 09 Apr 2007, New York, NY, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Business Source Premier, Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ 28 Sept 2007.

NumbersUSA.com. Ed. Roy Beck. 28 Jul 2006 (Updated 30 Oct 2007). EBSCOHost, MesaCommunity College, Mesa, AZ 13 Sep 2007.

United States. Congress House of Representatives Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims, Committee on Judiciary. H-1B Visa Program: More Oversight by Labor Can Improve Compliance with Program Requirements. Statement of Sigurd R. Nilsen, Director Education Workforce, and Income. Washington: GAO 06-901T, 2006

--. Department of Education. Report on the State of American Schools Shows High School Students Challenged by Math and Science. By Mike Bowler and David Thomas. Jun 2006. 28 Sep 2007

--. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics “Tomorrows Jobs”. Occupational Outlook Handbook 2006 – 2007 Ed. 28 Sep 2007

Final WP#2 w Suggestions for Revision

2007-12-06T14:13:00.000-08:00

Rocki Passano

Eng 102-2315

Professor Devon Adams

5 December 2007

Suggestions for Revision and WP#2 --

As you can see in this document I am still having MLA citing problems, which I did finally gain a better understanding thus completing outcome – Generate, format, and edit writing using appropriate technologies. Additionally, I did make the changes suggested by Professor Adams including a concluding paragraph below.

Obviously, there is quite a bit of controversy surrounding the H-1B Visa Program both for and against. My research brought me to the conclusion that there is no correct answer or easy solution to the question -- do we need to increase the H-1B quotas? My research did show that corporations are not being totally honest. Corporations have changed there approach to accomplishing their goal of increasing H-1B Visa quotas, they are no longer saying “there are no educated Americans to fill the vacancies” instead they are saying there are “no Americans with the right skill sets to fill the vacancies”. America now graduates sufficient bachelor degreed computer science graduates to force this change. What is not being said is that there are plenty of qualified, educated, and skilled Americans to fill these positions -- the men and women who helped pioneer the high tech industry in the 80s; but were laid off in the 90s; the same men and women who want a living wage for the work efforts. CEO’s, CFO’s, CIO’s, and corporate presidents have no problem receiving very large salaries and/or compensation packages mostly based on efforts of their employees. Additionally, there could be a need for highly educated specifically skilled workers that cannot be found in the U.S. so there should be a vehicle for obtaining such talent. And that talent should be paid a fair market wage no matter who fills the position. In order to find equitable solutions for the issues, we need to know the true facts regarding the motivations of the corporations.

Rocki Passano

Professor Devon C. Adams

English 102 – 2315

24 October 2007

Don't need a huge gap here before the paper begins -Devoncadams 10/31/07 9:29 AM

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY H1-B Visa Program

Barrett, Larry. “H-1B Bump: Not Dead Yet”. CIO Insight — Ziff-Davis Media; July 2, 2007, Google Database Search; Mesa, AZ, 30 August abbreviate months -Devoncadams 10/31/07 9:29 AM 2007.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_zdcis/is_200707/ai_n19426846

This article reflects a fair and balanced look at the H-1B Visa Program following the defeat of the Senate’s Immigration Reform bill. The article provides a post mortem quote from high-tech lobbyists (pro increase), trade associations (pro increase), advocacy organizations (anti increase), and Norman Matloff a professor at UC Davis (anti increase). just use his last name -Devoncadams 10/31/07 9:29 AM Mr. Barrett offers brief statistical information regarding the amendment proposed by Sen. J. Kyle (R-AZ), and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash) who hoped to double the amount of H-1B Visa cap by 2008, with additional increases thereafter. I was able to confirm from the HS/ICE web site website is one word now -Devoncadams 10/31/07 9:30 AM that in 2004, Congress increased the H-1B Visa cap by adding 20,000 exemption visas available each year for foreign students with advanced degrees from US universities making the current number 85,000 H-1B Visa applications granted each year in the US. The additional 20,000 exemption visas were a result of Congressional approval as part of a larger spending bill. I could find no bias in the article, just information both pro and con. Because I was previously employed by Ziff Davis, I know that unless the Corporation had a vested interest in the perception of the end result of an article, the company insisted writing published in any of the Media under the corporate umbrella be non-biased, factual, and accurate with the same print space for both sides of the issue. Therefore I trust the information in the article and the author.

Beck, Roy Howard. “The case against immigration: the moral, economic, social, and environmental reasons for reducing U.S. immigration back to traditional levels”. New York: W.W. Norton, c1996. CNJV6471.B43 1996 Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ 20 October 2007

I have not had an opportunity to review Mr. Beck’s book, but it is the only book I could find that might touch on my topic. Mr. Beck is he typo here. did you mean 'the"-Devoncadams 10/31/07 9:31 AM Chairman of the NumbersUSA Group which advocates against increasing the H-1B Visa Program. So I would probably use him as a source. I would prefer to read the book for myself before I decide to use it as a source. This was part of the requirement for the class assignment. I would develop this more here. -Devoncadams 10/31/07 9:31 AM

Broache, Anne. “Some H-1B workers underpaid, federal auditors say”. C/NETNews.com. San Francisco, CA CNET Networks, Inc., MCC Business Source Premier, Mesa, AZ 13 September 2007. http://news.com.com/Some+H-1B+workers+underpaid%2C+federal+auditors+say/2100-1022_3-6087367.html

This article reports on one of the problems associated with the H-1B Visa Program, the ability of Corporations to manipulate the system to the financial advantage of the Corporation. The article discusses the over 3200 petitions by H-1B workers have field against technology companies that did not commit to paying wages at prevailing rates. According to the article, the GAO found 5% of the total 65,000 approved applications were inaccurate but had been approved. Many H-1B workers are so grateful for their positions they may not complain because they fear having their visas revoked. The number of underpaid H-1B workers in the U.S. who are inaccurately paid is totally unknown. The article discusses that the problems and constraints which prevent conducting detail examinations of the applications but are just excuses. People start applying for these openings as soon as possible, the Department of Labor needs to do a better job of ensuring the applications are accurate and complete.

Gibson, Stan. “The H1-B Visa Bill: Here’s My Vote”. PC Week. Business Source Premier, EBSCO Host Research Databases; Mesa Community College; Mesa, AZ, 30 August 2007.http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu

Mr. Gibson attempts to gain the reader’s attention by identifying some of the issues that make the H-1B Visa Program controversial. “It’s got it all: xenophobia, class struggle, age discrimination”, he states in his opening sentence. This is a factual statement. He goes on to define this 1998 bill as a 50,000 increase of the H-1B Visa cap of 65,000. Mr. Gibson’s article goes on to present am abbreviated and opinionated version of the arguments both for and against this bill. In his argument for, Mr. Gibson states, “If there are people willing to take jobs and the wages that employers are willing to offer them, they should.” This statement would work if it applied to all people – not just H-1B visa applicants. U.S. technology industry workers had been doing these jobs, but the longer they work in the industry, the higher the salary goes; technology constantly changes, working with new products equals education and eventually expertise. Corporations should be honest and admit it’s the salaries and overhead driving their desire for an increase in H-1B visas applications. In his argument against eh bill, Mr. Gibson states, “It’s attempt to dilute the labor poor and depress programmers wages, particularly of older workers”. I don’t know about diluting the labor pool, but I do know that high tech wages are being depressed. In 1997 network engineers who had been in the industry for five to ten years were making $75,000 to $100,000 plus benefits and incentives. Today with twenty years experience, if lucky, a contract position at fifty dollars per hour might be available. That’s a loss of pay because contractors do not receive benefits. Further the H1-B Program is not limited to programmer positions. The high cost of health care is a factor that is never addressed by either side of this argument. However, this one factor could in my opinion, be the largest reason Corporations desire H1-B Visa workers. But this issue is left unaddressed in this article, or for that matter any real justification for the increase in H-1B visa cap increases.

Hayes, Frank. “H-1Bs and Students”. Computerworld: April 9, 2007, Volume 41 Issue 15, page 54-54 abbreviated and formatted differently -Devoncadams 10/31/07 9:32 AM. Academic Search Premier; EBSCOHost Research Database; Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ 30 August 2007 http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu

This article delves into the statistics behind the assertion that there are not enough qualified degreed graduates available in the U.S. to fill the open positions within their organizations. Mr. Hayes quotes data from the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLS, the National Science Foundation and the Computing Research Association giving additional credibility and reliability to the article and the argument. Mr. Hayes uses data to demonstrate the popularity of Computer Science majors in the U.S. show a direct correlation to the boom-bust economy surrounding the high tech industry. “What about the actual number of CS degrees?.. Those numbers were flat at about 25,000 college CS degrees per year until 1998 – exactly four years after interest in CS majors started to climb. And did they ever climb. Undergrad CS degrees peaked at a spectacular 57,400 in 2004 – exactly four years after the top of the “CS and dot-com” bubbles”, states Mr. Hayes. Consider the U.S. produced approximately 40,000 (approximate average) degreed CS undergrads for approximately four years. During this same time, corporations demanded and received a temporary increase in the H-1B visa caps to 115, 000. Mr. Hayes also points out that since the bottom has fallen out – college CS degrees are down thirty percent, but was expected. Additionally, students that were interested in CS kept choosing IT majors until the dot com bust, when they stopped. “…Ph.D. students – the high IT types who compete most directly with H-1B applicants?” It is my understanding from checking Department of Labor and Homeland Security immigration educational requirements for H-1B Visa applicants is the equivalent of a U.S. Undergrad Bachelor’s Degree. This statement implies that in order to compete against an H-1B visa applicant and U.S. worker has to hold a Ph.D. This statement points to another loophole that Corporations use to justify their demand for foreign workers. This is probably why my husband has had such a hard time qualifying for and being hired for IT positions in corporations to this day. I felt comfortable using this document for my paper because Mr. Hayes presents a unique approach of viewing the problems surrounding the lack of interest in CS degrees in the U.S. today and the statistical analysis. According to Mr. Hayes, “…so much for the idea that college students aren’t interested in IT. Of course they are. They just need something like the dot-com revolution to fire their imaginations and convince them there’s something worth doing in this business.” In many ways I agree, challenges do ignite the imaginations and motivate Americans into action. Great information -Devoncadams 10/31/07 9:36 AM

Matloff, Norman. “Debunking the Myth of a Desperate Software Labor Shortage. Testimony to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration, 21 April 1998 updated 9 December 2002. http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/itaa.real.html the formatting of this between the URL and dates was an issue. What happened? :) -Devoncadams 10/31/07 9:36 AM

Dr. Matloff provides his testimony to the Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration which reveals the hidden agenda behind the public relations campaign to influence Congress to increase yearly quota of H-1B work visas. He provides a comprehensive outlined document which delves into the facts and myths surrounding this controversy. Dr. Matloff focuses his argument against increases in the H-1B work visas on Software Engineers specifically because as noted he found the majority of H-1B visas were awarded to software developers and programmers 15 to 1 ratio versus hardware related visas awarded. Dr. Matloff is a tenured professor of Computer Science at UC Davis, received several honors, and is well published. I feel his work is reliable, factual and will be helpful in a research paper on H1-B Visas. This subject and document are relevant as the H1-B Visa Increase is being brought back into the forefront of the immigration issue, this congressional session and will probably be relevant in the upcoming Presidential election.We need a carriage return here -Devoncadams 10/31/07 9:37 AM

---. “The Adverse Impact of Work Visa Programs on Older U.S. Engineers and Programmers”. California Labor and Employment Law Review, Volume 20 No.4 August, 2006. State Bar of California. EBSCOHost Research Database, Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ 18 October 2007period here -Devoncadams 10/31/07 9:37 AM

In this article written for the State Bar of California, Dr. Matloff delves into the much ignored problem of high tech workers being discriminated against because of their age when applying for high technology employment. A company or corporation will never admit to this, but the facts prove the problem exists. In a study conducted by Dr. Matloff he found 57% of computer science graduates were working as programmers; at 15 years the number had dropped to 34% and by 20 years, the number was down to 19%. By contrast, Dr. Matloff found six years after graduation 61% of civil engineer graduates were working in the field and 20 years after graduation, 52% were still working in this field. Further evidence to support the existence of this problem was provided when a study conducted by the national Research Council (NRC) commissioned by Congress proved what U.S. Technical workers had been claiming all along. In an effort to refute their claims that we don’t have enough educated engineers in this country, lobbyists for corporations in favor of H-1B visa increases switched their claims to the workers in the U.S. are not skilled enough. This should have proved to Congress that the corporations were lying and there is no need for increases.

United States. Cong. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims, Committee on Judiciary. H-1B Visa Program: More Oversight by Labor Can Improve Compliance with Program Requirements. Statement of Sigurd R. Nilsen, Director Education Workforce, and Income. Washington: GAO 06-901T, 2006your font shifts in this source -Devoncadams 10/31/07 9:37 AM

The document is the testimony given to the Subcommittee on Immigration, et al, regarding misuse of the H-1B Visa Program Employer compliance with the prevailing wage rate. There had been several complaints to the Department of Labor that employers were not paying the prevailing wage they had agreed to for the position and in order to get the application approved. The GAO investigation results called for more oversight by the Department of Labor and Homeland Security – Immigration Compliance Enforcement, in reviewing applications completely for inaccuracies made by the submitting company. The Department of Labor claims that it is limited by law to checking for missing information or obvious inaccuracies and does this through automated data checks. GAO found several hundred certified applications that contained erroneous employer identification numbers. Employers appear to be constantly finding ingenious ways to beat the system and this study points out some of the ways to successfully accomplish this task. Further it appears to me that government agencies tasked with keeping the H-1B Visa Program honest aren’t doing their jobs to ensure that H-1B workers are being fairly treated and paid.

I am looking for a conlusionary paragraph here. Other than that and little formatting problems, good word. You really have passion about your topic and that shines through. 92% -Devoncadams 10/31/07 9:38 AM

Final WP#1 w/Suggestions for Revision

2007-12-06T14:09:00.000-08:00

Rocki Passano

Eng 102-2315

Professor Devon Adams

5 December 2007

Suggestions for Revision and WP#1 –

At first I had problems understanding the requirements for this assignment. The first most noticeable area I had difficulties with was the MLA citing for this assignment. I still have some confusion in this area and my solution to this problem is to buy a more recent edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. I was able to gain a better understanding of the MLA citing procedure by WP#3.

A stronger opening for this writing assignment is necessary to have more of an initial impact on the audience for this paper. More focus needs to be placed on the purpose as well as my role as a writer for this paper. Additionally I don’t need to be so cautious about my own ideas and ideas that I inhibit my writing abilities to generate a sound and reasonable thesis for my paper.

Had I accomplished the above I would have achieve the following outcomes –

· Generate, format, and edit writing using appropriate technologies.

· Identify, select and use an appropriate documentation style to maintain academic integrity.

· Integrate sources through summarizing, paraphrasing and quotation from sources to develop and support one’s own ideas.

Rocki Passano

English 102-2513

Deadline #6

HW#2 – WP#1

Thursday, September 27, 2007

rocki, WE DISCUSSED THIS ONLINE, SO I KNOW YOU ARE BACK ON TRACK :) -Devoncadams 10/17/07 7:52 PM

H-1B Visa Program

During the 1990s, the high technology industry was evolving and invading every aspect of daily life from personal computers to e-mail; to intelligent computer chips in automobiles and washing machines. Sweeping changes in high technology trade programs and as well as changes in telecommunication monopolies (i.e., telephone, television, cable, satellite) were in progress. Classrooms across the country were being wired for internet access during weekend volunteer programs. Venture capital money freely flowed into Silicon Valley enticing entrepreneurs to begin internet start-up companies that would become Yahoo and Google. This great unplanned success overwhelmed the existing technology workforce creating a demand for qualified skilled high technology workers in both the software and hardware fields. During this same time Congress had undertaken a major reform of the nation’s Immigration Act.

The H-1B nonimmigrant visa program was established with the U.S. Immigration Act of 1990 to assist U.S. employers in temporarily filling certain positions with highly-skilled foreign workers ¹. Currently Congress has limited the number of H-1B visas to 65,000 each year, with exemptions. Now, in the early twenty first century, corporations and special interest groups advocate a desperate need to increase the current cap again, citing a lack of qualified skilled Americans to fill their vacancies.

There are also groups and individuals who thoroughly discredit the need for an increase in the H-1B Visa program and advocate the program be shut down. Although it is clear that the number of applicants for H-1B visa consistently exceeds the 65,000 total available in the US each year, is an increase in this program necessary?

High technology has continued its evolution; new companies opened, failed, succeeded, merged or were acquired. High technology stocks hit record highs then record lows. A majority of the high tech companies from the 1980s and early 1990s do not exist anymore. The technology revolution slowed in its normal progression, it is estimated that approximately 100,000 American software engineers are currently unemployed ².

Special interests groups AILA (American Immigrations Lawyers Association)³, ITAA (Information Technology Association of America)⁴, and several U.S. Senators and Governors ⁵ are appealing to Congress to increase the current H-1B Visa Program limits, insisting that there is a shortage of qualified skilled U.S. employees to fill vacant positions. High tech companies like Microsoft, Oracle and Sun Microsystems have lobbied Congress heavily since 1998 for increases in the H-1B Visa program. Department of Labor records show Sun Microsystems has applied for a steadily increasing number of H-1B visas: 751 in 1999; 1870 in 2000; 5179 in 2001. The total number of Sun Microsystems worldwide employees in 2002 was 58,000 ⁶.

According to Normal Matloff, professor of computer science at the University of California-Davis, the failure of the current immigration reform bill only delays a predictable increase in the number of H-1B visas and green cards allowing an opportunity for high tech companies to exploit the system. “There’s no shortage of American workers for these jobs,” Mattloff says. “I don’t like being lied to and the tech industry is lying to us. They simply want access to cheap labor ⁷”. Federal auditors in a 2006 GAO audit determined that some H-1B workers are underpaid. GAO found approximately 3200 petitions for H-1B visa workers have gained approval even though the employers involved didn’t commit to paying wages at the prevailing rate ⁸. It is estimated that there are approximately 450,000 H-1B Visa workers in the U.S. today.

Further Lou Dobbs of CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight reported recently that U.S. Lawyers were giving advice to companies seeking foreign tech workers to circumvent regulations requiring Americans be given first shot at jobs that go to H-1B visa holders. ⁹ On the video, it is clear that corporations are looking for any means to avoid hiring U.S. workers for these jobs. One example is the use of head hunters to give the appearance of interviewing U.S. workers but never hiring them for the positions. Some head hunting firms have said they receive over one hundred thousand resumes for one position. These resumes are eliminated for lack of degrees, age, or lack of very specific skill set. Salaries for technology workers have been flat for the past eight years and many U.S. tech workers feel the H-1B Visa Program is partially responsible for the salary situation.

Several years ago, my husband and I both worked in the high-tech industry in Silicon Valley, California. I worked for a technology based trade show company, Interop, that had grown from a weekend bake-off at someone’s home in Monterrey to the top trade show company in the world. Interop was sold to Ziff-Davis after three successful years. Just before this sale became official and public knowledge, Ron and Jacqui Catterall of London England were persuaded to sell their London based IP Company to Ziff Davis and become part of the ZD organization through the H-1B Visa program. The Catteralls sold their business and home, packed and shipped their personal belongings and moved to the US. Immediately upon arrival they began working at Ziff Davis; Ron as my immediate Director and Jacqui as my subordinate. They lived in a hotel in Sunnyvale, Ca for six months while having a home built. Ron, Jacqui, my husband and I became friends and often socialized together. Two and one half years later during a dinner party entertaining friends, Immigration and Naturalization Service arrived at their door. INS declared the Catteralls were illegally in the United States and had thirty days to leave the country for good. Ron and Jacqui were under the impression that Ziff Davis was processing the paper work to obtain green cards for that in accordance with their agreement of employment and the sale of their IP Company. ZD failed to notify Ron and Jacqui they would not be applying for their green card; or that because Ron and Jacqui did not have green cards their H-1B status would expire; or that ZD would be terminating their employment immediately the next day. ZD had contacted INS prior to advising the Catteralls of the change in their status or of their pending termination. The Catteralls moved to Mexico where they currently reside, but to this day still have problems visiting the U.S. It was all very strange as Ziff Davis had assisted when the Catteralls needed social security numbers so they could pay SSI and all associated income taxes and disability. Ziff Davis eventually sold Interop+Networld (the trade show company) to a Korean/Japanese Conglomerate and I left the company. My husband became employed with RedBack, Inc. and we moved to Arizona.

At RedBack, Inc. my husband traveled ninety percent of the time, mostly to Europe, Asia, throughout the U.S. and Canada and occasionally to New Zealand and Australia. When not flying all over the world, he was a technical instructor, training customer engineers on RedBack’s equipment. Shortly after the high tech stock bubble burst, mergers and acquisitions and then corporate downsizing, the next thing we knew my husband is training hundreds of H-1Bs to do installations and training. Six months later my husband and several hundred of his co-workers were laid off in a reduction in force. It took my husband five years with out of pocket expenses to keep his skill set competitive and leading edge to find another job in the technology field as a contractor with no benefits. During the five years, my husband sent out thousands of resumes and went to hundreds of interviews. But of course he is well over 35 (the industry nondiscriminatory age cap) and he was never hired. Two or three H-1Bs could be hired instead of my husband for less than he would cost.

I don’t like being lied to in much the same way as Norman Matloff, I want to know the real reason behind this push for more foreign labor into the U.S. and I don’t think I am alone. Corporations have a fiduciary right to keep cost down and profits up for their shareholders which in many ways justifies their need for H-1B workers. If the motivation for an increase of H-1B Visas is strictly financial, than tell the truth. Amazingly, Americans can adapt, improvise and overcome should the need present itself (i.e., the Space Race), but we don’t like being lied to.

Works Cited

1 United States Government Accountability Office Testimony – Before the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims, Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives; “H-1B Visa Program – More Oversight by Labor Can Improve Compliance with Program Requirements”; Statement of Sigurd R. Nielsen, Director Education, Workforce, and Income Security – GAO -06-901T, June 22, 20006

2 NumbersUSA

3 AILA – http://www.aila.org/content/default.aspx?docid=1021

“The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) is the national association of over 10,000 attorneys and law professors who practice and teach immigration law. AILA Member attorneys represent tens of thousands of U.S. families who have applied for permanent residence for their spouses, children, and other close relatives to lawfully enter and reside in the United States. AILA Members also represent thousands of U.S. businesses and industries who sponsor highly skilled foreign workers seeking to enter the United States in a temporary or --having proven the unavailability of U.S. workers -- permanent basis. AILA Members also represent foreign students, entertainers, athletes, and asylum seekers, often on a pro bono basis. Founded in 1946, AILA is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that provides its Members with continuing legal education, information, professional services, and expertise through its 35 chapters and over 50 national committees. AILA is an Affiliated Organization of the American Bar Association and is represented in the ABA House of Delegates.”

4 ITAA -- http://www.itaa.org/index.cfm

Unable to locate a definitive mission statement for this organization

5 Letter from Governors to House & Senate -- Letter from 13 U.S. Governors Urging Congressional Action to Increase Availability of H1-B and Permanent Resident Visas

6 January 17, 2002; http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2002-01/sunflash.20020117.2.xml?printFriendly=true

7 Barrett, Larry; “H-1B Bump: Not Dead Yet” July 2, 2007; CIO Insight

8 United States Government Accountability Office Testimony – Before the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims, Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives; “H-1B Visa Program – More Oversight by Labor Can Improve Compliance with Program Requirements”; Statement of Sigurd R. Nielsen, Director Education, Workforce, and Income Security – GAO -06-901T, June 22, 20006

9 CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight; “U.S. Lawyers Intentionally Cripple America’s High-Tech Workers (video)

D#15HW#2 Peer Review Reflection

2007-11-29T18:31:00.000-08:00

I have enjoyed participating in this process and think it is an important part of the on-line class process. It gives us an opportunity to give and obtain feedback to each other. Having little confidence in my own writing, I needed this type of participation from my classmates. The demands of this class have made it difficult to always participate in this process for me and I suspect for my classmates as well. However, the feedback I received was always positive and helpful; pointing out areas where I needed to make changes to make my writing more concise and accurate to what was required. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my classmates for their help during this class and wish them all success in their future endeavors.

D#15HW#1 Peer Review

2007-11-29T18:29:00.000-08:00

D#15HW#1

Peer Review

I was only able to review Rebecca’s D#14 Draft Cover Letter as she was the only one who shared her document with me. I will continue to check other blogs to see if I can review any other Draft Cover Letters later tonight.

D#14HW#1 Cover Letter Draft

2007-11-21T20:00:00.000-08:00

Rocki Passano

Eng 102-2315

Professor Devon Adams

Cover Letter

I prepared for the writing process by creating a research log. I took advantage of the help offered in The Bedford Researcher and the BedfordResearcher.com tools and activities as well as the websites provided by the instructor to began work exploring, choosing, and narrowing a topic. Next, collect, transcribe, and organizing all notes and recordings; began browsing the internet and talking to friends about the topics, always taking notes. Utilizing the Bedford Research Narrow Topic Research Plan to refine the topic, made it obvious that the topics I had chosen were too broad required additional attention. Answering those nine questions assists in narrowing the focus of the topic and also in defining the research question for the topic. Another important area vital to the process of writing a research paper includes evaluating articles or documents for a research paper with a questioning attitude and a sense of detective work. Developing an ability to identify an articles relevance to the topic and not spending too much time evaluating documents, articles, data bases, blogs, and web sites are vital and important to this process. Prior to this class it was easy to spend lots of time searching the web reading unusable information and basically wasting valuable time.

Being constantly aware of the chosen topic and the research question; being vigilant for information that can be useful, specifically, collecting information from each perspective of the research question and topic, because information can come from many media. Identifying the personal perspective, making a decision on additional or optional avenues of gaining data such as taking a survey, or interviewing people in the area of expertise for the topic and developing appropriate questions for the survey or scripts can also provide useful information. Creating a Thesis Plan and remembering to read and evaluate for relevance, credibility and accuracy are important tasks in the writing process. Assembling all the notes, conversations, documents, articles, recordings etc. together to create a cohesive research document at first appears to be a monumental, but approaching it using the tools available through The Bradford Researcher help to easily facilitate organizing data, by creating a cluster or an old fashion outline. From these tools began to write a rough draft. The writing process continues with the definition, refinement, revision, and review process which can continues through all phases of writing and can include many of these process cycles before producing a final document. I found it surprising that I so thoroughly enjoyed the research and investigative aspects of the process, maybe there is a research career in my future. It is important that we do not simply accept as truth information in newspapers, on television, in magazines, on the web as the whole truth. So much of our lives is out of our control and requires that we obtain as much information as possible in order to form sound judgments, especially when we go to the election booth to vote.

An area in which I think my writing improved was in linking everything together into a cohesive document; from the opening statement to the conclusion, I feel I was able to tie with the ending sentence of a paragraph to the opening sentence in the following paragraph. Hopefully, my final grade will evidence that I did accomplish all of the outcomes of this course.

WP#2 Final H-1BAnnotated Bibliography

2007-11-20T17:31:00.000-08:00

Rocki Passano

Professor Devon C. Adams

English 102 – 2315

31 October 2007

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY H-1B Visa Program

Barrett, Larry. “H-1B Bump: Not Dead Yet”. CIO Insight — Ziff-Davis Media; July 2, 2007, Google Database Search; Mesa, AZ, 30 Aug 2007.

<http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_zdcis/is_200707/ai_n19426846>

This article reflects a fair and balanced look at the H-1B Visa Program following the defeat of the Senate’s Immigration Reform bill. The article provides a post mortem quote from high-tech lobbyists (pro increase), trade associations (pro increase), advocacy organizations (anti increase), and Norman Matloff a professor at UC Davis (anti increase). Barrett offers brief statistical information regarding the amendment proposed by Sen. J. Kyle (R-AZ), and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash) who hoped to double the amount of H-1B Visa cap by 2008, with additional increases thereafter. I was able to confirm from the HS/ICE website that in 2004, Congress increased the H-1B Visa cap by adding 20,000 exemption visas available each year for foreign students with advanced degrees from US universities making the current number 85,000 H-1B Visa applications granted each year in the US. The additional 20,000 exemption visas were a result of Congressional approval as part of a larger spending bill. I could find no bias in the article, just information both pro and con. Because I was previously employed by Ziff Davis, I know that unless the Corporation had a vested interest in the perception of the end result of an article, the company insisted writing published in any of the Media under the corporate umbrella be non-biased, factual, and accurate with the same print space for both sides of the issue. Therefore I trust the information in the article and the author.

In his book, Beck argues for cutting immigration on the grounds that it is contributing to the falling real wages that breed dying communities and disintegrating families. He suggests that immigration has also contributed to the increasing gap between the rich and the poor in this country. Further, Beck makes a case that immigration harms every level of the economy, including the high-end high technology sector. He calls for a revamped system reducing U.S. immigration levels equivalent to those between 1924 and 1965. Additionally, he points out that only a small elite few are benefiting from current immigration levels, mainly corporations and other employers that benefit from low-wage labor. Beck also identifies African American workers as being particularly hard hit by immigration because many employers can meet minority hiring goals by employing immigrants instead of African Americans.

Broache, Anne. “Some H-1B workers underpaid, federal auditors say”. C/NETNews.com. San Francisco, CA CNET Networks, Inc., MCC Business Source Premier, Mesa, AZ 13 Sep 2007. http://news.com.com/Some+H-1B+workers+underpaid%2C+federal+auditors+say/2100-1022_3-6087367.html

Gibson, Stan. “The H1-B Visa Bill: Here’s My Vote”. PC Week. Business Source Premier, EBSCO Host Research Databases; Mesa Community College; Mesa, AZ, 30 Aug 2007. http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu

Gibson attempts to gain the reader’s attention by identifying some of the issues that make the H-1B Visa Program controversial. “It’s got it all: xenophobia, class struggle, age discrimination”, he states in his opening sentence. This is a factual statement. He goes on to define this 1998 bill as a 50,000 increase of the H-1B Visa cap of 65,000. Gibson’s article goes on to present an abbreviated and opinionated version of the arguments both for and against this bill. In his argument for, Gibson states, “If there are people willing to take jobs and the wages that employers are willing to offer them, they should.” This statement would work if it applied to all people – not just H-1B visa applicants. U.S. technology industry workers had been doing these jobs, but the longer they work in the industry, the higher the salary goes; technology constantly changes, working with new products equals education and eventually expertise. Corporations should be honest and admit it’s the salaries and overhead driving their desire for an increase in H-1B visas applications. In his argument against the bill, Gibson states, “It’s attempt to dilute the labor pool and depress programmers wages, particularly of older workers”. I don’t know about diluting the labor pool, but I do know that high tech wages are being depressed. In 1997 network engineers who had been in the industry for five to ten years were making $75,000 to $100,000 plus benefits and incentives. Today with twenty years experience, if lucky, a contract position at fifty dollars per hour might be available. That’s a loss of pay because contractors do not receive benefits. Further the H1-B Program is not limited to programmer positions. The high cost of health care is a factor that is never addressed by either side of this argument. However, this one factor could in my opinion, be the largest reason Corporations desire H1-B Visa workers. But this issue is left unaddressed in this article, or for that matter any real justification for the increase in H-1B visa cap increases.

Hayes, Frank. “H-1Bs and Students”. Computerworld 9 Apr 2007, Vol 41 Issue 15, page 54-54. Academic Search Premier; EBSCOHost Research Database; Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ 30 Aug 2007 http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu

This article delves into the statistics behind the assertion that there are not enough qualified degreed graduates available in the U.S. to fill the open positions within their organizations. Hayes quotes data from the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLS, the National Science Foundation and the Computing Research Association giving additional credibility and reliability to the article and the argument. Hayes uses data to demonstrate the popularity of Computer Science majors in the U.S. show a direct correlation to the boom-bust economy surrounding the high tech industry. “What about the actual number of CS degrees?.. Those numbers were flat at about 25,000 college CS degrees per year until 1998 – exactly four years after interest in CS majors started to climb. And did they ever climb. Undergrad CS degrees peaked at a spectacular 57,400 in 2004 – exactly four years after the top of the “CS and dot-com” bubbles”, states Mr. Hayes. Consider the U.S. produced approximately 40,000 (approximate average) degreed CS undergrads for approximately four years. During this same time, corporations demanded and received a temporary increase in the H-1B visa caps to 115, 000. Hayes also points out that since the bottom has fallen out – college CS degrees are down thirty percent, but was expected. Additionally, students that were interested in CS kept choosing IT majors until the dot com bust, when they stopped. “…Ph.D. students – the high IT types who compete most directly with H-1B applicants?” It is my understanding from checking Department of Labor and Homeland Security immigration educational requirements for H-1B Visa applicants is the equivalent of a U.S. Undergrad Bachelor’s Degree. This statement implies that in order to compete against an H-1B visa applicant and U.S. worker has to hold a Ph.D. This statement points to another loophole that Corporations use to justify their demand for foreign workers. This is probably why my husband has had such a hard time qualifying for and being hired for IT positions in corporations to this day. I felt comfortable using this document for my paper because Hayes presents a unique approach of viewing the problems surrounding the lack of interest in CS degrees in the U.S. today and the statistical analysis. According to Mr. Hays, “…so much for the idea that college students aren’t interested in IT. Of course they are. They just need something like the dot-com revolution to fire their imaginations and convince them there’s something worth doing in this business.” In many ways I agree, challenges do ignite the imaginations and motivate Americans into action.

Matloff, Norman. “Debunking the Myth of a Desperate Software Labor Shortage. Testimony to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration, 21 Apr 1998 updated 9 Dec 2002. http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/itaa.real.html

Dr. Matloff provides his testimony to the Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration which reveals the hidden agenda behind the public relations campaign to influence Congress to increase yearly quota of H-1B work visas. He provides a comprehensive outlined document which delves into the facts and myths surrounding this controversy. Matloff focuses his argument against increases in the H-1B work visas on Software Engineers specifically because as noted he found the majority of H-1B visas were awarded to software developers and programmers 15 to 1 ratio versus hardware related visas awarded. Dr. Matloff is a tenured professor of Computer Science at UC Davis, received several honors, and is well published. I feel his work is reliable, factual and will be helpful in a research paper on H1-B Visas. This subject and document are relevant as the H1-B Visa Increase is being brought back into the forefront of the immigration issue, this congressional session and will probably be relevant in the upcoming Presidential election.

In this article written for the State Bar of California, Dr. Matloff delves into the much ignored problem of high tech workers being discriminated against because of their age when applying for high technology employment. A company or corporation will never admit to this, but the facts prove the problem exists. In a study conducted by Matloff he found 57% of computer science graduates were working as programmers; at 15 years the number had dropped to 34% and by 20 years, the number was down to 19%. By contrast, Matloff found six years after graduation 61% of civil engineer graduates were working in the field and 20 years after graduation, 52% were still working in this field. Further evidence to support the existence of this problem was provided when a study conducted by the national Research Council (NRC) commissioned by Congress proved what U.S. Technical workers had been claiming all along. In an effort to refute their claims that we don’t have enough educated engineers in this country, lobbyists for corporations in favor of H-1B visa increases switched their claims to the workers in the U.S. are not skilled enough. This should have proved to Congress that the corporations were lying and there is no need for increases.

D#13HW#7 Deadline Reflection

2007-11-16T01:02:00.000-08:00

D#13HW#7

Eng 102-2315

15 November 2007

Deadline Reflection

I need to learn more technology tools; maybe I will have to take a basics class next year. Tonight I was so thrilled that I had everything ready a little early, I just needed to review everything one last time to check for grammar errors, and/or MLA errors. I was a little surprised to find that may document had become 20 pages in length when I included several statistical tables, but I was confident that I had produced a good document. After dinner, I attempted to post my WP#3 Final document to Turnitin, but was unsuccessful because I had already posted my WP#3Draft #1 to Turnitin and there was no room for me to include my final document. I sent an email to Professor advising of the situation. Not to be daunted, I attempted to post WP#3 Final to Google Docs. This time my document is too large for Google Docs, but I kept trying to figure someway to make it work. My attempt to post WP#3 Final to my blog was unsuccessful because the tables and charts would not transfer properly. All of my lack of technology skills made me late posting everything.

Good Night and Dream Sweet!

D13HW#6

2007-11-16T00:34:00.000-08:00

D#13HW#6

Eng 102-2315

15 November 2007

I did not always post to my blogs, but I did keep all of my handwritten notes and post-its because my intentions were to complete each assignment given in this class. Therefore my deadline comments usually reflected the fact that there was always a lot of material to be covered in each assignment given for this class. Several reasons may account for my inability to make all of the deadlines, which I will reflect upon in my final reflection letter.

D#13HW#4

2007-11-16T00:27:00.000-08:00

D#13HW#4&5

Eng 102-2315

15 November 2007

I love to write but I have never had a lot of confidence in my writing, mainly because I am a very shy person. This project has helped me develop some very positive skills that if I continue to develop will further my writing development. Each step of the process has taught me new techniques to employ that will help me build the confidence I need. Additionally through this process I was able to identify areas of weakness that I need to spend more time developing, specifically MLA style. In my reflection letter, I will be able to write about the areas of strengths and weakness I discovered and developed.

D#13HW#3

2007-11-16T00:03:00.000-08:00

D#13HW#3

Rocki Passano

Eng 102-2315

15 November 2007

Writing Project Reflection

I don’t think I will ever finish this project; every day there is something relevant to this issue in the news. I have thoroughly enjoyed each and every step to this project. It began slow and confusing, but I am very satisfied with the end product. The research aspect of this project was the most interesting part for me, which I thoroughly enjoyed and suspect I might wish to pursue a career in this area. At the very least I know I will be able to utilize the tools and techniques I have learned in during the course of this class and this project. I wanted to include the labor statistics tables and the campaign contribution tables because they helped provide additional substance and information to solidify the information they referenced in the paper. Following MLA standards meant including the actual table in document, however, the size of these tables helped to increase the size of the document. Personally, I disagree with this and feel that the way I included the website should have been enough considering the size of the table. But what do I know?

In the news tonight regarding the H-1B Visa Program were three studies conducted independently by Harvard, University of Wisconsin, and a non profit Urban Institute, each of which concluded that the high technology industry data and statistics are absolutely incorrect and we do not need to increase the H-1B Visa Program. These studies found that since 1999 the United States has graduated 435,000 math, science and computer technology bachelor, master and doctoral degrees each year. Many of whom have chosen not to pursue careers in the fields of their degrees. So maybe my research question should have been – Why are the presidents of high technology corporations continuing to lie about the available labor force in the United States?

D#13WP#3 Final

2007-11-16T00:00:00.000-08:00

My document is too large to post to Google Docs and I am to non technical to get it to post here. Additionally because I posted my WP#3 Draft to Turnitin there is no room for me to post the WP#3 Final.

D#12HW# 7,8, & 9

2007-11-09T00:48:00.000-08:00

I attempted to review every WP# Draft that was submitted to Google Docs. In order to accomplish my assignments for Deadline #12, I did not get an opportunity to check out any blogs. However, I did not get any comments on my WP#3 Draft even though in the e-mail message I shared WP#3 Draft, I requested help with a specific problem.

As usual, there was lots of work to do. I particularly enjoyed the revision and editing exercises. They really helped and I know I will use hem in future writing that I will have to do in order to get that college degree.

Have a great weekend everyone!

D#12HW#5

2007-11-09T00:47:00.000-08:00

“Show us the money” – figurative language I could use in my document

If the real reason behind the corporate demands for additional H-1B Visa quotas has everything to do with keeping cost down and profits up, then show us the money. The evidence speaks for itself. Corporate profits are at a 50 year high and salaries are flat.

D#12HW#4

2007-11-09T00:45:00.000-08:00

1. The section where word choice was critical for me was in the opening/introduction to this paper. I did not want to let my emotions affect the opening. However, it was important to be professional and still allow some emotion through – the one I was going for was “confusion”. I also wanted to so the issue doesn’t affect high tech companies and foreign workers.

2. Sentence structure I attempted to vary – lengths, the way the sentences began and I also attempted to keep everything tied together to my main theme.

3. I attempted to vary my punctuation as much as possible and still maintain a natural rhythm to reading this material. I made use of the semicolon, colon, dashes, ellipsis points and questions marks throughout the document, hopefully effectively.

D#12HW#2&3

2007-11-09T00:43:00.000-08:00

In my second draft I found spelling mistakes and some problems with sentence structure. I also revised my opening and conclusion sections. Additionally I found problems with my cited works which did not match.

My outline resulted in basically the first draft I did for this project. This made me realize that I had stayed on track and was focused in my writing.

In my third draft, I found a few more cited works errors and a few more sentence structure errors. I was pleased to find that after crossing out my evidence, I had as much of my own material as evidence and it still contained my argument and reasoning as well as y analysis and evaluation of my evidence.

D#12HW#3WP#3Draft#3

2007-11-09T00:07:00.000-08:00

Rocki Passano

Eng 102-2513

Professor Devon C. Adams

D#12HW#3WP#3Draft#3

H-1B Visa Program -- Are Increases Necessary?

During the 1990s, the high technology industry was evolving and invading every aspect of daily life from personal computers to e-mail; to intelligent computer chips in household items automobiles and washing machines. Sweeping changes in high technology trade programs as well as changes in telecommunications monopolies (i.e., telephone television, cable, satellite) were in progress. Public school classrooms across the country were being wired for internet access during weekend volunteer programs. Venture capital money freely flowed into Silicon Valley enticing entrepreneurs to begin internet start-up companies that would become Yahoo and Google. This great unplanned success overwhelmed the existing technology workforce creating a demand for qualified skilled high technology workers in both the software and hardware fields. During this same time, Congress had undertaken a major reform of the nations Immigration Act.

The H-1B non-immigrant visa program was established with the U.S. Immigration Act of 1990 to assist U.S. employers in temporarily filling certain position with highly-skilled foreign workers (GAO). Congress had limited the number of H-1B visas to 65,000 each year with an additional exemption of 20,000 for foreign workers who had graduated from a U.S. college or university with an advanced degree, making the actual total of H-1B visa applicants 85,000 each year.

The Y2K problem created a major demand for additional highly skilled software programmers. The Y2K problem is in three parts, according to A. Passano. 1.) Software and databases calculate on or were written with dates with two-digit years; 2.) every year divisible by 4 is a leap year. 2000 is divisible by 4, which make it a leap year. Except years ending in 00 aren’t leap years. However, years divisible by 400 are leap years, which finally makes the year 2000 a leap year; and 3.) That means that following February 28, 2000, software that does not know that the year 2000 is a leap year will use the Julian date (numbers of the day in the year) wrong for the rest of the year, and will get the day of the week wrong forever. There are other problems with dates, but this represents the major Y2K Problem. All this meant that every piece of hardware, every software package and program, every embedded system and every data set could be affected.

With the Y2K Problem looming the need arose for Congress to temporarily increase the H-1B visa quota for 1999 and 2000 to 115,000 when it passed the American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act of 1999. Congress again increased the H-1B visa quota to 195,000 for three years (2001, 2002, and 2003) with the passage of the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act in 2000, reverting back in 2004 to a cap of 65,000 H-1B visa applicants each year (GAO).

The pressure to increase the H-1B visa quotas has been consistent since 2003. And today, it is stronger than ever. Corporations, several Governors and Senators (Letter) and special interest groups advocate a desperate need to increase current quotas again, citing a lack of qualified skilled Americans to fill their vacancies. Over 125,000 applications were filed for the 65,000 openings by the second day of accepting applications in 2007. By July, 2007 Department of Homeland Security decided not to accept anymore applications for the 2008 fiscal year because they had more than enough applicants (NumbersUSA). During a vote in July 2007, Comprehensive Immigration Reform (including H-1Bs) was defeated; forcing Microsoft’s CEO Bill Gates to plan the opening of a new development center in Vancouver Canada, “…allows the company to recruit and retain highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S.” (Broache and Fried). Additionally, Department of Labor records indicate Sun Microsystems has applied for a steadily increasing number of H-1B visas: 751 in 1999; 1870 in 2000: 5179 in 2001.

Many advocates for an increase in the H-1B Visa Program feel America is losing its edge in technology and science; pointing to the erosion of science and math education in U.S. high schools as a key issue. “High school students in the U.S. are consistently outperformed by those from Asian and some European countries on international assessments of math and science (USDE). President Bush decided to do something about the educational situation in our public schools with the “No Child Left Behind” policy in an effort to improve testing scores in public schools. High school drop out rates are on a steady increase over the last several years. This presents a problem because approximately 9% of the fastest-growing jobs of the future will require some post-secondary education or training (USDOL). Between 1989-1990 and 2003 and 2004, of the top five most popular degree fields to decline was engineering and engineering technologies by 5% (USDE).

The high technology industry has continued its evolution; new companies opened, some failed, some succeeded, and some were merged or acquired. High technology stocks hit record highs then record lows. A majority of the high tech companies from the 1980s and early 1990s do not exist anymore. As the technology revolution slowed its growth, first there was outsourcing then large lay-offs or reductions in force and has lead to an estimate of approximately 100,000 American software engineers currently unemployed (NumbersUSA). These numbers change depending on the data presented (see Table http://data.bls.gov/oep/servlet/oep.noeted.servlet.ActionServlet?Action=emprprt&Occ=1510320092&Occ=1510990098&Occ=1510410093&Occ=1510510094&Occ=4920110795&Occ=5140110886&Occ=4390210681&Occ=1510610095&Occ=4390310683&Occ=1730290150&Occ=2710240333&Occ=2920990437&Occ=1510710096&Occ=1510810097&Occ=4720710733&Occ=4120310603&Occ=4920220798&Occ=4990520841&Occ=1130420020&Occ=1310730062&Occ=4351110672&Number=10&Sort=emp_base&Base=2004&Proj=2014&EdLevel=99&Search=Education&Type=Education&Phrase=&StartItem=0 (USDOL).

Congress is looking for ways to give in to the high technology industries demand for permanent increases in the H-1B quotas. Why? Let’s follow the money. As Senator Bob Bennett, R-Utah said after Congress enacted the H-1B visa program expansion in 2000, “There were, in fact, a whole lot of [members of Congress] against it, but because they are tapping the high-tech community for campaign contributions, they don’t want to admit it in public” (Matloff). Federal Election Commission data shows that high tech companies were contributors to political campaigns during 2004 elections (see Table http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/contrib.asp?Ind=B&Cycle=2004 & Table http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/contrib.asp?Ind=B&cycle=2006 (Opensecrets.org).

Dr. Norman Matloff, professor of computer science at the University of California-Davis is against H-1B Visa Program. He believes the failure of the current immigration reform bill only delays a predictable increase in the number of H-1B visas and green cards allowing an opportunity for high tech companies to exploit the system. “There’s no shortage of American workers for these jobs,” Matloff says, “I don’t like being lied to and the tech industry is lying to us. They simply want access to cheap labor” (Matloff).

Federal auditors in a 2006 GAO audit determined that some H-1B workers are underpaid. GAO found approximately 3200 petitions for H-1B visa workers have gained approval even though the employers involved didn’t commit to paying wages at the prevailing rate (GAO).

It has also been suggested that most of the H-1B visas are going to Indian companies that are taking advantage of the situation in order to not hire American workers. Lou Dobbs of CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight reported recently that U.S. lawyers were giving advice to companies seeking foreign tech workers to circumvent regulations requiring Americans be given first shot at jobs that go to H-1B visa holders (NumbersUSA). On the video, it is clear that corporations are looking for any means to avoid hiring U.S. workers for these jobs. One example is the use of head hunters to give the appearance of interviewing U.S. applicants, but never hiring them for the positions. Some head hunting firms have said they receive over one hundred thousand resumes for one position. These resumes are eliminated for lack of degrees, age, or lack of a very specific skill set. Salaries for technology workers have been flat for the past eight years and many U.S. tech workers feel that H-1B Visa Program is partially responsible for the salary situation.

Several Business Week articles point out that the starting salaries for new bachelor’s degree graduates in computer science and electrical engineering, adjusted for inflation, have been flat or falling in recent years. This belies the industry’s claim of a labor shortage. Additional analysis at the master’s degree level shows the same trend, flat wages – contradicting the industry’s claim that workers at the postgraduate level are in especially short supply (Matloff).

Recently, the Programmers Guild, which represents 1,500 technical and professional workers, has drafted its own letter to congressional leaders, warning that the policy called for by Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) in their October 11, 2007 letter, would further disadvantage American workers. The October 11 letter calls for any foreign student with at least a bachelor’s degree in technology or science be granted permanent residency if they get a job offer (Herbst).

Several years ago, my husband and I both worked in the high-tech industry in Silicon Valley, California. I worked for a technology based trade show company, Interop, that had grown from a weekend bake-off at someone’s home in Monterrey to the top trade show company in the world. Interop was sold to Ziff-Davis after three successful years. Just before this sale became official and public knowledge, Ron and Jacqui Catterall of London, England were persuaded to sell their London based IP Company to Ziff Davis and become part of the ZD organization through the H-1B Visa Program. The Catteralls sold their business and home, packed and shipped their belongings to the U.S. Immediately upon arrival they began working at Ziff Davis; Ron as my immediate Director and Jacqui as my subordinate. They lived in a hotel in Sunnyvale, CA for six months while having a home built in Sunnyvale, CA. Ron, Jacqui, my husband and I became friends and often socialized together. Two and one half years later, during a dinner party entertaining friends, Immigration and Naturalization Service arrived at their door. INS declared the Catteralls were illegally in the United States and had thirty days to leave the country for good. Ron and Jacqui were under the impression that Ziff Davis was processing the paper work to obtain their green cards for them in accordance with their agreement of employment and the sale of their IP Company. ZD failed to notify Ron and Jacqui they would not be applying for their green card; or that ZD would be terminating their employment immediately the next day. ZD had contacted INS prior to advising the Catteralls of the change in their status or of their pending termination. The Catteralls moved to MexicoU.S. It was all very strange as Ziff Davis had assisted when the Catteralls needed social security numbers so they could pay SSI and all associated income taxes and disability. Ziff Davis eventually sold Interop+Networld (the trade show company) to a Korean/Japanese conglomerate and I left the company. My husband became employed with RedBack, Inc. and we moved to Arizona. where they currently reside, but to this day still have problems visiting the

At RedBack, Inc. my husband traveled ninety percent of the time, mostly to Europe, Asia, throughout the U.S. and Canada and occasionally to New Zealand and Australia. When not flying all over the world, he was a technical instructor, training customer engineers on RedBack’s equipment. Shortly after the high tech stock bubble burst, mergers and acquisitions and then corporate downsizing, my husband is training hundreds of H-1Bs to do (what my husband was doing) installations and training. Six months later my husband and several hundred of his co-workers were laid off in a reduction in force. This had been a start up company when my husband started with RedBack. After these employees helped to bring the RedBack to the top of its field and to become a top competitor for Cisco, the company just let them go. It took my husband five years with out of pocket expenses to keep his skill set competitive and leading edge to find another job in the technology field as a contractor with no benefits. During the five years, my husband sent out thousands of resumes and went to hundreds of interviews. But of course he is well over 36 (the industry nondiscriminatory age cap) and he was never hired. Two or three H-1Bs could be hired instead of my husband for less than he would cost.

I don’t like being lied to in much the same was as Norman Matloff, I want to know the real reason behind this push for more foreign labor into the U.S. and I don’t think I am alone. Corporations have a fiduciary right to keep cost down and profits up for their shareholders which in some ways seems to justify their need for H-1B workers. If the motivation for an increase of H-1B Visas is strictly financial, then tell the truth. Amazingly, Americans can adapt, improvise and overcome should the need present itself (i.e., the Space Race), but we don’t like being lied to.

The H-1B Visa Program does not just affect the labor sector or the high tech industry; it has a tendency to set policy. As corporations are able to keep overhead cost down (labor cost, benefits, building and maintenance, etc) and profits up; if successful it becomes a model for conducting a successful business. Filtering into all levels like a domino effect. Eventually, a majority of the companies in the area are following the model; next local companies and local government; then state and federal governments are following the model as well. “Economists, of course, will tell you there's no such thing as a labor shortage. From a worker's viewpoint, many so-called shortages could quickly be solved if employers were to offer more money. And worldwide, millions of people still can't find jobs. The strongest evidence that there's no general shortage today is that overall worker pay has barely outpaced inflation. In the U.S., the share of national income going to corporate profit, rather than, say, labor, is hovering around a 50-year high. With so many people newly available for work in China, India, and the former Soviet Union, the only thing that could cause a real shortage would be "a global pandemic that kills millions of people," Harvard University economist Richard B. Freeman wrote in a research paper in September” (News & Insights). Obviously changes are needed in the H-1B Visa Program as well as in the administration of the program. There are many facets to the dilemma facing U.S. high technology workers, foreigners who want to work in the U.S., and corporations. Congress must have all the facts and the ability to investigate the entire picture prior to making any logical decisions. Real determinations must be assessed for where the need for exceptional high tech workers exist, mechanisms to ensure that there are no qualified Americans and finally issuing visas for those positions that are vitally necessary. Verifying that those workers are being fairly treated would be required to ensure fair and equitable treatment. Additionally, those that abuse and misuse the program should be penalized and/or punished. Anything less will not eliminate the problem or resolve the issue to meet the needs of all involved.

Works Cited

Broache, Anne and Fried, Ina. “Microsoft sings ‘O Canada’ amid Immigration challenges”. C/NETNews.com. 5 Jul 2007, San Francisco, CA CNET Networks, Inc. Business Source Premier, Mesa Community College Mesa, AZ 28 Sep 2007 www.news.com/Microsoft-sings-o-canada-amid-immigration-challenges/21

Daniels, M., Doyle, J., Freudenthal, D., Gibbons, J., Gregoire, C., Napolitano, J., Patrick, D., Pawlenty, T., Perry, R., Ritter, B., Schwarzenegger, S., Sebelius, K., Spitzer, E. “Letter to H. Reid, M. McConnell, N. Pelosi, J. Boehner”. 11 Sep 2007 U.S. House & U.S. Senate Washington, D.C. http://www.aila.org/content/default.aspx?docid=23290

Herbst, Moira. “The Great Tech Worker Divide”. Business Week – Technology. 10 Oct 2007. EBSCOHOST Mesa Community College Mesa, AZ, 28 Oct 2007. www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/oct2007/db2007109_93

Matloff, Norman. “Should the U.S. increase its H-1B visa program? CON: Wages belie claims of a labor shortage”. San Francisco Chronicle. 7 Dec 2006 EBSCOHost, Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ 28 Oct 2007 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/07/EDGOULJ5BC1.DTL&hw=Should+the+US+increase+its+1B+visa+program&sn=003&sc=459

News & Insights “Where Are All The Workers Gone”. Business Week – Technology. 09 Apr 2007, New York, NY, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Business Source Premier, Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ 28 Sept 2007. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_15/b4029050.htm

NumbersUSA.com. Ed. Roy Beck. 28 Jul 2006 (Updated 30 Oct 2007). EBSCOHost, MesaCommunity College, Mesa, AZ 13 Sep 2007. www.NumbersUSA.com

Opensecrets.org. Web site for “Center for Responsive Politics” (note unable to access web site for additional information. Will get this info and update asap)

United States. Congress House of Representatives Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims, Committee on Judiciary. H-1B Visa Program: More Oversight by Labor Can Improve Compliance with Program Requirements. Statement of Sigurd R. Nilsen, Director Education Workforce, and Income. Washington: GAO 06-901T, 2006

--. Department of Education. Report on the State of American Schools Shows High School Students Challenged by Math and Science. By Mike Bowler and David Thomas. Jun 2006. 28 Sep 2007 www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2006/06/06012006.html

--. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics “Tomorrows Jobs”. Occupational Outlook Handbook 2006 – 2007 Ed. 28 Sep 2007 www.bls.gov

D#12HW#2WP#3Draft#2

2007-11-08T21:55:00.000-08:00

Rocki Passano

Eng 102-2513

Professor Devon C. Adams

WP#3Draft#2

8 November 2007

H-1B Visa Program -- Are Increases Necessary?

Beginning of background and history on the H-1B Visa Program

Beginning of support for increase information

Introduction of information supporting not increasing H-1BVisa Program

Beginning of information through interviews (personal) information

Several years ago, my husband and I both worked in the high-tech industry in Silicon Valley, California. I worked for a technology based trade show company, Interop, that had grown from a weekend bake-off at someone’s home in Monterrey to the top trade show company in the world. Interop was sold to Ziff-Davis after three successful years. Just before this sale became official and public knowledge, Ron and Jacqui Catterall of London, England were persuaded to sell their London based IP Company to Ziff Davis and become part of the ZD organization through the H-1B Visa Program. The Catteralls sold their business and home, packed and shipped their belongings to the U.S. Immediately upon arrival they began working at Ziff Davis; Ron as my immediate Director and Jacqui as my subordinate. They lived in a hotel in Sunnyvale, CA for six months while having a home built in Sunnyvale, CA. Ron, Jacqui, my husband and I became friends and often socialized together. Two and one half years later, during a dinner party entertaining friends, Immigration and Naturalization Service arrived at their door. INS declared the Catteralls were illegally in the United States and had thirty days to leave the country for good. Ron and Jacqui were under the impression that Ziff Davis was processing the paper work to obtain their green cards for them in accordance with their agreement of employment and the sale of their IP Company. ZD failed to notify Ron and Jacqui they would not be applying for their green card; or that ZD would be terminating their employment immediately the next day. ZD had contacted INS prior to advising the Catteralls of the change in their status or of their pending termination. The Catteralls moved to MexicoU.S. It was all very strange as Ziff Davis had assisted when the Catteralls needed social security numbers so they could pay SSI and all associated income taxes and disability. Ziff Davis eventually sold Interop+Networld (the trade show company) to a Korean/Japanese conglomerate and I left the company. My husband became employed with RedBack, Inc. and we moved to Arizona. where they currently reside, but to this day still have problems visiting the

At RedBack, Inc. my husband traveled ninety percent of the time, mostly to Europe, Asia, throughout the U.S. and Canada and occasionally to New Zealand and Australia. When not flying all over the world, he was a technical instructor, training customer engineers on RedBack’s equipment. Shortly after the high tech stock bubble burst, mergers and acquisitions and then corporate downsizing, my husband is training hundreds of H-1Bs to do (what my husband was doing) installations and training. Six months later my husband and several hundred of his co-workers were laid off in a reduction in force. This had been a start up company when my husband started with RedBack. After these employees helped to bring the RedBack to the top of its field and to become a top competitor for Cisco, the company just let them go. It took my husband five years with out of pocket expenses to keep his skill set competitive and leading edge to find another job in the technology field as a contractor with no benefits. During the five years, my husband sent out thousands of resumes and went to hundreds of interviews. But of course he is well over 36 (the industry nondiscriminatory age cap) and he was never hired. Two or three H-1Bs could be hired instead of my husband for less than he would cost.

The H-1B Visa Program does not just affect the labor sector or the high tech industry; it has a tendency to set policy. As corporations are able to keep overhead cost down (labor cost, benefits, building and maintenance, etc) and profits up; if successful it becomes a model for conducting a successful business. Filtering into all levels like a domino effect. Eventually, a majority of the companies in the area are following the model; next local companies and local government; then state and federal governments are following the model as well. “Economists, of course, will tell you there's no such thing as a labor shortage. From a worker's viewpoint, many so-called shortages could quickly be solved if employers were to offer more money. And worldwide, millions of people still can't find jobs. The strongest evidence that there's no general shortage today is that overall worker pay has barely outpaced inflation. In the U.S., the share of national income going to corporate profit, rather than, say, labor, is hovering around a 50-year high. With so many people newly available for work in China, India, and the former Soviet Union, the only thing that could cause a real shortage would be "a global pandemic that kills millions of people," Harvard University economist Richard B. Freeman wrote in a research paper in September” (BusinessWeek.com). Obviously changes are needed in the H-1B Visa Program as well as in the administration of the program. There are many facets to the dilemma facing U.S. high technology workers, foreigners who want to work in the U.S., and corporations. Congress must have all the facts and the ability to investigate the entire picture prior to making any logical decisions. Real determination need to be assessed for where the need for exceptional high tech workers exist, mechanisms to ensure that there are no qualified Americans and finally issuing visas for those positions. Verifying that those workers are being fairly treated would be required to ensure fair and equitable treatment. Additionally, those that abuse and misuse the program should be penalized and/or punished. Anything less will not eliminate the problem or resolve the issue to meet the needs of all involved.

Works Cited

NumbersUSA.com. Ed. Roy Beck. 28 Jul 2006 (Updated 30 Oct 2007). EBSCOHost, MesaCommunity College, Mesa, AZ 13 Sep 2007. www.NumbersUSA.com

Opensecrets.org. Web site for “Center for Responsive Politics” (note unable to access web site for additional information. Will get this info and update asap)

--. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Outlook Handbook 2006 – 2007 Ed. Tomorrows Jobs, 28 Sep 2007 www.bls.gov

D#9HW#4HW#3 DRAFT #1 Passano

2007-11-08T11:23:00.000-08:00

Rocki Passano

Eng 102-2513

Professor Devon C. Adams

October 25, 2007

H-1B Visa Program -- Are Increases Necessary

During the 1990s, the high technology industry was evolving and invading every aspect of daily life from personal computers to e-mail; to intelligent computer chips in automobiles and washing machines. Sweeping changes in high technology trade programs as well as changes in telecommunications monopolies (i.e., telephone television, cable, satellite) were in progress. Public school classrooms across the country were being wired for internet access during weekend volunteer programs. Venture capital money freely flowed into Silicon Valley enticing entrepreneurs to begin internet start-up companies that would become Yahoo and Google. This great unplanned success overwhelmed the existing technology workforce creating a demand for qualified skilled high technology workers in both the software and hardware fields. During this same time, Congress had undertaken a major reform of the nations Immigration Act.

The pressure to increase the H-1B quotas has been consistent since 2003. And today, it is stronger than ever. Corporations, several Governors and Senators (Letter) and special interest groups advocate a desperate need to increase current quotas again, citing a lack of qualified skilled Americans to fill their vacancies. Over 125,000 applications were filed for the 65,000 openings by the second day of accepting applications in 2007. By July, 2007 DHS decided not to accept anymore applications for the 2008 fiscal year because they had more than enough applicants (NumbersUSA). Not increasing the U.S. H-1B quotas has forced Microsoft’s CEO Bill Gates to plan the opening of a new development center in Vancouver Canada, “…allows the company to recruit and retain highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S.” (Broache and Fried). Additionally, Department of Labor records indicate Sun Microsystems has applied for a steadily increasing number of H-1B visas: 751 in 1999; 1870 in 2000: 5179 in 2001.

Many advocates for an increase in the H-1B Visa Program feel America is losing its edge in technology, science. Many point to the erosion of science and math education in U.S. high schools as a key issue. “High school students in the U.S. are consistently outperformed by those from Asian and some European countries on international assessments of math and science (USDE). President Bush decided to do something about the educational situation in our public schools with the “No Child Left Behind” policy in an effort to improve testing scores in public schools. High school drop out rates are on a steady increase over the last several years. This presents a problem because approximately 9% of the fastest-growing jobs of the future will require some post-secondary education or training (USDOL). Between 1989-1990 and 2003 and 2004, of the top five most popular degree fields to decline was engineering and engineering technologies by 5% (USDE).

Congress is looking for ways to give in to the high technology industries demand for permanent increases in the H-1B quotas. Why? Let’s follow the money. As Senator bob Bennett, R-Utah said after Congress enacted the H-1B visa program expansion in 2000, “There were, in fact, a whole lot of [members of Congress] against it, but because they are tapping the high-tech community for campaign contributions, they don’t want to admit it in public” (Matloff). Federal Election Commission data shows that high tech companies were contributors to political campaigns during 2004 elections (see Table http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/contrib.asp?Ind=B&Cycle=2004 & Table http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/contrib.asp?Ind=B&cycle=2006 (FEC).

Several years ago, my husband and I both worked in the high-tech industry in Silicon Valley, California. I worked for a technology based trade show company, Interop, that had grown from a weekend bake-off at someone’s home in Monterrey to the top trade show company in the world. Interop was sold to Ziff-Davis after three successful years. Just before this sale became official and public knowledge, Ron and Jacqui Catterall of London, England were persuaded to sell their London based IP Company to Ziff Davis and become part of the ZD organization through the H-1B Visa Program. The Catteralls sold their business and home, packed and shipped their belongings to the U.S. Immediately upon arrival they began working at Ziff Davis; Ron as my immediate Director and Jacqui as my subordinate. They lived in a hotel in Sunnyvale, CA for six months while having a home built in Sunnyvale, CA. Ron, Jacqui, my husband and I became friends and often socialized together. Two and one half years later, during a dinner party entertaining friends, Immigration and Naturalization Service arrived at their door. INS declared the Catteralls were illegally in the United States and had thirty days to leave the country for good. Ron and Jacqui were under the impression that Ziff Davis was processing the paper work to obtain their green cards for them in accordance with their agreement of employment and the sale of their IP Company. ZD failed to notify Ron and Jacqui they would not be applying for their green card; or that ZD would be terminating their employment immediately the next day. ZD had contacted INS prior to advising the Catteralls of the change in their status or of their pending termination. The Catteralls moved to Mexico where they currently reside, but to this day still have problems visiting the U.S. It was all very strange as Ziff Davis had assisted when the Catteralls needed social security numbers so they could pay SSI and all associated income taxes and disability. Ziff Davis eventually sold Interop+Networld (the trade show company) to a Korean/Japanese conglomerate and I left the company. My husband became employed with RedBack, Inc. and we moved to Arizona.

At RedBack, Inc. my husband traveled ninety percent of the time, mostly to Europe, Asia, throughout the U.S. and Canada and occasionally to New Zealand and Australia. When not flying all over the world, he was a technical instructor, training customer engineers on RedBack’s equipment. Shortly after the high tech stock bubble burst, mergers and acquisitions and then corporate downsizing, my husband is training hundreds of H-1Bs to do (what my husband was doing) installations and training. Six months later my husband and several hundred of his co-workers were laid off in a reduction in force. This had been a start up company when my husband started with this company. After these employees helped to bring the company to the top of its field and to become a top competitor for Cisco, the company just let them go. It took my husband five years with out of pocket expenses to keep his skill set competitive and leading edge to find another job in the technology field as a contractor with no benefits. During the five years, my husband sent out thousands of resumes and went to hundreds of interviews. But of course he is well over 36 (the industry nondiscriminatory age cap) and he was never hired. Two or three H-1Bs could be hired instead of my husband for less than he would cost.

Works Cited

Broache, Anne and Fried, Ina. “Microsoft sings ‘O Canada’ amid Immigration challenges”. C/NETNews.com. 5 July 2007, San Francisco, CA CNET Networks, Inc. Business Source Premier, Mesa Community College Mesa, AZ 28 September 2007 www.news.com/Microsoft-sings-o-canada-amid-immigration-challenges/21

Daniels, M., Doyle, J., Freudenthal, D., Gibbons, J., Gregoire, C., Napolitano, J., Patrick, D., Pawlenty, T., Perry, R., Ritter, B., Schwarzenegger, S., Sebelius, K., Spitzer, E. “Letter to H. Reid, M. McConnell, N. Pelosi, J. Boehner”. 11 September 2007 U.S. House & U.S. Senate Washington, D.C. http://www.aila.org/content/default.aspx?docid=23290

Herbst, Moira. “The Great Tech Worker Divide”. Business Week – Technology. 10 October 2007. EBSCOHOST Mesa Community College Mesa, AZ, 28 October 2007. www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/oct2007/db2007109_93

Matloff, Norman. “Should the U.S. increase its H-1B visa program? CON: Wages belie claims of a labor shortage”. San Francisco Chronicle. 7 December 2006 EBSCOHost, Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ 28 October 2007 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/07/EDGOULJ5BC1.DTL&hw=Should+the+US+increase+its+1B+visa+program&sn=003&sc=459

NumbersUSA.com. Ed. Roy Beck. 28 July 2006 (Updated 30 October 2007). EBSCOHost, Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ 13 September 2007. www.NumbersUSA.com

--. Department of Education. Report on the State of American Schools Shows High School Students Challenged by Math and Science. By Mike Bowler and David Thomas. June 2006. 28 September 2007 www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2006/06/06012006.html

--. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Outlook Handbook 2006 – 2007 Ed. Tomorrows Jobs, 28 September 2007 www.bls.gov

D#11, HW#6 Deadline Reflection

2007-11-01T23:06:00.000-07:00

I can honestly say that this week, I am on schedule and on time. I also had an opportunity to read just about everyone’s WP#3 drafts that was shared with me and I made comments on all but Eric’s which did not need any comments. All of the topics are interesting and they are applicable to our everyday lives. I look forward to reading all of the final documents. I still am having some problems with how to deal with very large tables in my document. But I am still researching this issue. I also have discovered that I enjoying doing research. I like investigating, using various databases, libraries and web sites. I have come to appreciate all the tools this class utilizes and I will probably continue using them in the future in all aspects of my life. I also think my writing has improved considerable as a result of the tools in The Bedford Researcher and Everything’s an Argument have contributed to these improvements and have been beneficial to my writing process and habits.

D#11HW#5 Draft Conclusion(s)

2007-11-01T23:03:00.000-07:00

Conclusion

“Economists, of course, will tell you there's no such thing as a labor shortage. From a worker's viewpoint, many so-called shortages could quickly be solved if employers were to offer more money. And worldwide, millions of people still can't find jobs. The strongest evidence that there's no general shortage today is that overall worker pay has barely outpaced inflation. In the U.S., the share of national income going to corporate profit, rather than, say, labor, is hovering around a 50-year high. With so many people newly available for work in China, India, and the former Soviet Union, the only thing that could cause a real shortage would be "a global pandemic that kills millions of people," Harvard University economist Richard B. Freeman wrote in a research paper in September” (BusinessWeek.com). Obviously changes are needed in the H-1B Visa Program as well as in the administration of the program. There are many facets to the dilemma facing high technology workers, foreigners who want to work in the U.S., and corporations. Congress must have all the facts and the ability to investigate the entire picture prior to making any logical decisions. Real determination needs to be made on where the need for exceptional high tech workers exist, mechanisms to ensure that there are no qualified Americans and finally issuing visas for those positions. Verifying that those workers are being fairly treated would be required to ensure fair and equitable treatment. Additionally, those that abuse and misuse the program should be penalized and/or punished. Anything less will not eliminate the problem or resolve the issue to meet the needs of all involved.

Conclusion

David Rosenberg isn't buying it. A North American economist at Merrill Lynch, he is one of a number of economists who say the concerns about too few workers are vastly overblown. Rosenberg recently studied the issue and put out a report entitled Is There a Labor Shortage? If employers are having trouble filling jobs, "perhaps they're not looking hard enough," he says.

The issue may not be the number of workers, but rather the level of pay. Economists like Rosenberg argue that in a market economy, there's really no such thing as a true shortage. If you want more of something, you can pay more and have it. When employers say that there's a worker shortage, what they really mean is they can't get enough workers at the price they want to pay, the argument goes. "While it makes for nice cocktail conversation, the data aren't saying there is an acute labor shortage in this country," Rosenberg says.

Consider the numbers. Even as the unemployment rate has declined in recent years, millions of Americans have left the workforce and stopped looking for jobs. The government's Bureau of Labor Statistics has a dedicated category for "discouraged" workers who believe no positions are available to them. If the percentage of Americans participating in the workforce were the same now as it was in 2000, the number officially counted as unemployed would be 9.1 million, rather than 7.1 million. The unemployment rate would be 5.8%, instead of 4.6%. (BusinessWeek.com)

Eventually, something has to give. Corporations have to stop lying and start paying a living wage for their workers. Congress needs to get to the truth of the matter and deal with real facts not just the whining of CEOs who want to have their bonuses for keeping costs down and profits up.

D#11 HW#5 Draft Introduction(s)

2007-11-01T23:01:00.000-07:00

Draft Introduction

High technology corporations, special interest groups, Representatives, Senators and Governors are all calling for increases in the H-1B Visa Program quotas on the basis that insufficient educated, high skilled Americans are not available to fill their vacancies. Critics, some educators, high technology workers and their advocacy groups contend that corporations and special interest groups are wrong and through heavy campaign contributions have been able to influence Congress into believing a shortage exist based on inaccurate information. Foreign students who attend American universities and colleges want to remain and work in the U.S. Foreign companies that have opened offices in the U.S. want foreign workers from their own countries to work in their offices. Once we muddle through all of this, the question boils down to what is the truth, do we need to increase the H-1B Visa Program quotas? Numbers can be used to prove anything and I found that the numbers game is in play big time with this issue. High tech companies like Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and Oracle use numbers to prove there are no workers to fill their vacancies. Many tech blogs indicate that getting positions with these organizations is difficult—an applicant must meet all the specific skill sets, educational as well as experience requirements of the open position. Admitting that they receive hundreds of thousands of resumes each month, Microsoft can easily eliminate these applicants because they lack one of the criteria required in the job opening. Being fair to these organizations, they absolutely do have a need for highly qualified and educated employees, they are the leaders in their fields at this time and in order to stay at the top and continue to be competitive, they must have the best of the best. Organizations like Google willingly admit there are areas of their business that require talent that cannot be found in the U.S. and it is true for Google. However, Americans have once again stepped up to the plate, answered the cry for more degreed computer science graduates, and now we have them. What is the real motivation behind the demand for foreign workers? I want to know and I want the truth. after graduation.

Should the U.S. increase its annual quota for H-1B Visa Program as is being demanded by major high technology companies? Corporations want to make money; that’s what they are all about, and we want American corporations to make money. It is good for the economy and therefore good for all involved. The technology revolution has spread or wildly in the world. Today’s global economy requires corporations to stay competitive. Keeping operating costs down and profits up is the goal all corporations hope to achieve. The most obvious and efficient way to do this is to cut overhead and labor costs. By publicly announcing there is a shortage of workers in the U.S. corporations are ignoring the hundreds of thousands of high tech workers that have been laid off; the government stops counting a person as unemployed once they are no longer receiving unemployment checks; many are age(s) of 45 to 62, no longer eligible for unemployment, unable to get a job in their industry, are taking jobs at ten to twelve dollars an hour. They have skills and experience; they were the technology revolution in the early 80s and 90s. These experienced and skilled workers were making between $75K and $100K a year when they lost their jobs in 2002 and 2003. Today those same jobs are starting at $50K to 65K a year, and corporations want younger people preferably H-1B visa applicants who are ready to take these jobs. Older workers would take these jobs if offered because they need to work and earn money, but often they are overlooked. Additionally corporations like AT&T have resorted to offering high tech jobs to “out sourced (Indian) head hunter and contractor organization with the stipulation that they hire Americans for one year contracts at between $25 and $45 per hour. I know this personally because my husband is approached each year by no less than ten people calling from India. This year, they insisted that my husband give them his social security number if he wished to be considered for a position without making a job offer. Yeah, right. So what is really going on with this issue? A lack of honesty, for sure, but what else is behind corporations demands for increases in the H-1B Visa Program?

D#11HW#4 Reading Reflection

2007-11-01T22:59:00.000-07:00

Reading Reflection

The reading assignments this week helped me to pull my research, notes, drafts, bibliography, and cited works together for my WP#3 draft. My main problem is that I keep finding more material that is relevant to this topic. Every article I read leads to more information. I think have sufficient information in my draft, but there is new material every day that is applicable. The reading helped me to put it into perspective and I was able to organize my material into what I hope is a readable informed document. I did have some difficulty coming up with alternate introductions and conclusions. I still have not resolved the issue of how to handle the large Department of Labor Tables that I use to verify unemployment figures in the high technology industry. I am still researching to find an answer, but if you know where I can find the information please let me know.

D#8HW#6 Deadline Reflection

2007-10-18T23:32:00.000-07:00

Eng 102-2315
D#8HW#6

Deadline Reflection

As always there is a lot of work to do in this class and as usual, I am behind. I have so much unfinished work yet to complete for this class and I realize that our time is quickly running toward the end. “Enemy mine is Time” has become the mantra I say whenever I happen to pass my husband in the hall as he is going to bed and I am going to the office or I am going to sleep for a few hours and he is going to work. It does appear that we are working at different paces, so I am going to wish everyone a happy restful weekend. I will continue to try to get caught up and read some blogs.

I made to brief comments to Becca’s Blurb and Jennifer Leeds Blogs for the Rhetorical Analysis of the Coldplay review.

TTFN

D#8 HW#5 Grammar Assignment

2007-10-18T23:24:00.000-07:00

Eng 102-2315
D#8HW#5

Grammar Assignment

I have continued to work on my WP#1, as it is the basis for my writing project for this class by changing it to the proper format, as well as improving my Annotated Bibliography this week. I have Visa Program improved the syntax in several of the paragraphs in the WP#1 and some spelling errors. Additionally, I expanded on the audience paragraph somewhat but still need to work on improving the quality of those I identify as being influential in making changes to the peripheral effects of the H-1B Visa Program in the technology industry.

Paragraphs Corrected –

I don’t like being lied to in much the same way as Norman Matloff, I want to know the real reason behind this push for more foreign labor into the U.S. and I don’t think I am alone. Corporations have a fiduciary right to keep cost down and profits up for their shareholders which in many ways justifies their need for H-1B workers. If the motivation for an increase of H-1B Visas is strictly financial, then tell the truth. Amazingly, Americans can adapt, improvise and overcome should the need present itself (i.e., the Space Race), but we don’t like being lied to.

In addition to my professor, classmates, and my family, the audience will be those concerned about the labor issues – employment/unemployment, corporate and lobbying influence on policy issues and legislation, and U.S. immigration policy. The H-1B Visa program doesn’t just affect the labor sector or the high tech industry; it has a tendency to set policy. As corporations are able to keep overhead cost down (labor cost, benefits, building and maintenance, etc), and profits up; eventually leading to success and becoming a model for conducting business. It filters to all levels, a domino effect. Eventually, a majority of the companies in the area are following the model; next local companies and local government; then state and federal governments are following the model as well. And those people most negatively affected are boxed into a corner with no way out.

I used web links provide to me by Professor Adams and the “MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Ppaers”.

D#8 HW4 Rhetorical Analysis

2007-10-18T23:20:00.000-07:00

Eng 102-2315
D#8HW#4

Rhetorical Analysis

“The Case against Coldplay”

Mr. Pareles began his writing career at his high school newspaper writing critical reviews of newly released albums. He received a BA in 1974 from Yale University. Mr. Pareles also wrote for The Yale Daily News during his time as a student at Yale. His professional career has also included senior editor at The Village Voice in 1980 in New York as well as associate editor For Rolling Stone Magazine in 1979. Jon Pareles is currently a music critic for the New York Times since 1982. (Interview, Jon Pareles)

As part of the Jazz Appreciation Class I took at MCC, the class was required to produce critical reviews on various pieces of music. I don’t personally have any awareness of Coldplay or their music, but this does not preclude an appreciation of a critical analysis of their music. The only familiar association I have with Mr. Pareles’s work occurs when I am in New York; I use his expertise to decide on what live, jazz venues to visit when in the area. I prefer to make my own decisions regarding the music I choose without personal influences of someone I don’t know personally.

It appears the argument in this article/review is to persuade music listeners, that Coldplay’s new album “X&Y” is at best a corporate success, but he expects better from them in the music department. Grabbing the readers’ attention using the emotional outrage one would get from associating Coldplay to the deadliest of sins. Mr. Pareles alludes to the financial stakes riding on the success of the album after its delayed release which caused the EMI’s (parent company for Capitol Records) stock to drop after announcing the delay, thus announcing the importance of the success of the album. The possibility that the album will be a success is clearly stated by Coldplay’s past victories having sold over 20 million copies.

Mr. Pareles identifies and acknowledges and uses ethos to mock Coldplay’s audience, “Clearly, Coldplay is beloved: by moony high school girls and their solace-seeking parents, by hip-hp produces who sample its rich instrumental sounds and by emo rockers who admire Chris Martin’s heart-on-sleeve lyrics”. (Pareles, 282) He then goes on to let the readers know exactly how he really feels about the group, “The band emanates good intentions, from Mr. Martin’s political statements to lyrics insisting on its own benevolence. Coldplay is admired by everyone – everyone except me.” (282)

Using descriptive visuals impressions Mr. Pareles demonstrates his musical competence in describing the symmetry of the band melodies. He identifies the individual mastery of the band members and their mechanics of pop songwriting. He goes on to announce that “Coldplay is meticulously unified, and its songs have been rigorously cleared of anything that distracts from the musical drama.” (282) He easily invests the audience in the belief that “X&Y” is presenting some phenomenal musical tracts making you want to listen to the album as soon as possible.

It is at this point that Mr. Pareles drops the hammer and really lets the readers know exactly what his opinion of Mr. Martin’s vocal talents. Literally reducing Mr. Martin to the contagion of the disease sung about in “Clocks”. “Am I part of the cur/Or am I part of the disease.” Mr. Martin pondered in “Clocks” on “A rush of Blood to the Head.” Actually, he’s contagious”. (283)

In conclusion, Mr. Pareles condemns the lyrical quality of the music pointing out that Mr. Martin is no longer singing about his own private vulnerabilities. “This time, he sings a lot about “you”: a lover, a brother, a random acquaintance”. (283) Mr. Pareles attempts to soften the harshness of his critique, “It’s supposed to be compassionate, empathetic, magnanimous, inspirational. But when the music swells up once more with tremolo guitars and chiming keyboards, and Mr. Martin’s voice breaks for the umpteenth time, it sounds like hokum to me”. He did intrigue me into wanting to check out some of Coldplay’s music.

Works Cited

Pareles, Jon. “Ask A Reporter” Learning Network Student Connections. New York Times, Sept 9-14, 2007. New York, NY 15 October 2007 http://www.nytimes.com/learning/students/ask_reporters/pareles.html

Pareles, Jon. “The Case against Coldplay” NY Times. Rpt. in everything’s an argument. Lunsford, Andrea A. and Ruszkiewicz, John J. 4^th Edition 2007. Bedford/St. Martin, Boston, MA

D#8 HW#3 Peer Review Reflection

2007-10-18T23:18:00.000-07:00

Eng 102-2315
D#8HW#3

Peer Review Reflection

I didn’t do this assignment, even though I did look at all of the WP#2 that were shared with me. My problem was that I knew I had not done a good job on my own WP#2 and I am still not sure that I had accomplished what was required. In my first submission I summarized what the article or source I was using and where I had located but this did not seem to be exactly what was required. I continue to work on this assignment and I promise to pass on relevant findings to you all just as soon as I get word.

D#8, HW#1 Reading Reflection

2007-10-18T23:14:00.000-07:00

Rocki Passano
Eng 102-2315
D#8HW#1

Do we automatically utilize the tools we are reviewing ("everything's an argument" and the bradford researcher) when we read articles, reviews and or books unconsciously developing rhetorical analysis? This week’s reading assignments hopefully helped me to present a more concise Annotated Bibliography which I had been having problems with. I presented a review of each article in my AB, but I did not rhetorically analyze any of my annotations. I tried to look at each article I knew I would use in my proposal project from a rhetorical perspective in my presentation on the new Annotated Bibliography. Attempting to make sure to write relevant to all aspects required for our writing assignments means I need to choose my words concisely without writing too much. I once had a writing instructor who used to say KISS – Keep It Short and Simple. Once again time is my enemy. Is it possible to write an article without any of the rules, tools, as identified in the reading assignments just completed? I also enjoyed reading about the Toulmin Argument and Toulmin Analysis and hope to apply the Analysis portion to HW#4

D#5HW#5 Field Research

2007-10-17T22:26:00.000-07:00

Rocki Passano
Eng 102-2315
D#5 HW#5

Field Research

Becoming passionate about a topic is easy for me, and I am gathering that I really enjoy doing research. There are a lot of directions I could go with this project if I had infinite time. I have always wanted to ask the richest man in the world how much is enough and why it is okay to ruin others lives to get to enough. I had worked personally with Bill Gates during my days with Interop/ZD/Networld+Interop, so I sent him an e-mail requesting an interview on the H-1B Visa Program. I explained that this was part of my research project for this class. I requested five minutes of his time either by e-mail (I would provide questions, but he would have to respond); on-line chat; video conference or telephone. I only played on past acquaintance as an introduction, but requested that he not do this as a favor, it is a totally professional request. I will let you know what Mr. Gates says.

I am developing questions for my interviews one will be with an IT Engineer who is over the age of forty and one with an IT Engineer under the age of forty. Additionally I intend to follow-up with the Catteralls to complete their story.

Preliminary questions for the Catteralls:

• The U.S. H-1B Visa Program has impacted your lives please give me an opinion what the program means to you.

• What could have been done to prevent the circumstances that happened to you and by whom?

• Do you know of other non-Americans that have taken advantage of the H-1B Program? Was the experience positive or negative? What was the end result and how did the end happen?

• What positive impacts the H-1B Visa Program is to individuals, to the U.S. and other countries?

• Do you see any negative impacts the H-1B Visa Program be to the above?

• Have you continued to work in the technology industry?

• What was the emotional/financial impact now and at the time your H-1B status changed?

• Would you recommend changes to the program and what would they be?

• How has your experience with the H-1B Visa Program affected your opinion of Corporate America; the American government; your relationships within the IT industry; relationships established with the IT industry?

NOTE: Some of the above questions can be used for the interview questions for the IT Engineers as well.

I considered contacting Intel in Chandler to conduct a survey. But I am not sure I have the time to devote to a real survey at this time.

D#5,HW#2 & HW3

2007-10-17T21:04:00.000-07:00

Rocki Passano
Eng 102-2315
D#5, HW#2 & #3
Peer Review & Reflection

This assignment was very difficult for me and I was unable to complete it. I am having difficulty completely my WP#1 assignment because I am having problems comprehending exactly what needs to be accomplished. Even more frustrating is that I have problems putting into writing the difficulties I am experiencing. I have decided to forge ahead and write what I think is required, submit the document to Turnitin and hope to glean some direction from Professor Adam’s comments when he grades the document. Commenting on other student’s document would have been inappropriate at this time since I don’t know what I am doing. And I am not sure I should post this because I haven’t had a chance to discuss with the Prof.

D#5,HW#1 Reading Reflection

2007-10-17T20:26:00.000-07:00

Rocki Passano
Eng 102-2315
D#5HW#1
Reading Reflection

The reading assignment for this assignment provided me with another reliable database source that I had forgotten about, Library of Congress. I had been going to each agency, Department of Labor, Homeland Security –ICE, Government Accountability Office, etc. By taking advantage of the LOC, I can one stop shop. I was unsuccessful in locating an actual “book” on this subject as yet, but there exist a multitude of articles and papers written on my topic. I have not had an opportunity to go through the Ebrary at MCC, I am sure there are books out there that I will be able to locate once time permits. All in all, the information in the reading material was logical, already being utilized in my own research.

I have already conducted a semi interview for my research. Even though I was present and actually witnessed what Ron and Jacqui Catterall went through when they lived and worked in California, I felt that I had to verify a. that I could write about them and b. that I had the facts correctly so that I accurately recounted what happened to them. I would really like an opportunity to interview bill Gates on this issue and have sent an email requesting an opportunity to conduct a phone, chat, web video, conference call, etc. I will let you know if he responds. I do intend to conduct at least two other interviews one with my husband and one with someone under the age of 40 who is finding difficulty finding employment in the technology industry. (I also have to conduct interviews for another class this semester). I am in the process of developing my scripts as one interview is fast approaching. I decided against observation, as it is not really applicable to my topic, but I do think that survey might be the way to go, but do I have enough time. Time, the enemy of us all!

D#4 HW#6 Evaluating Sources

2007-10-17T19:10:00.000-07:00

Rocki Passano

Eng 102-2315

D#4 HW#6

EVALUATING SOURCES

I choose to evaluate Norman Matloff who is a source I first choose as the foundation for information for my topic H-1B Visa Program because I had observed his testimony to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Immigration on CSPAN in 1998. Dr. Norman Matloff is a professor of computer science at the University of California at Davis. A bio sketch can be reviewed at http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/matloff.html which briefly details all his accomplishments. The fact that he is a former database software developer was a final deciding factor; he has a clearer understanding of the issue because he has worked in the technology industry. Dr. Matloff has published an extensive academic paper at the invitation of the University Of Michigan Journal Of Law Reform on the H-1B/L-1 issue; he has also published for the California Labor and Employment Law Review an article on the relation of H-1B to age discrimination in the computer industry. Dr. Matloff utilizes nationally recognized sources, i.e., National Research Council, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment, and ICE, data as evidence to support his findings on the H-1B issues. Dr. Matloff’s credentials seem impeccable and as a source, is relevant in that my audience is most likely not aware of the duplicity of the H-1B issue by Corporations, especially since the impact on older engineers directly impacts my household.

Reflection

2007-10-17T19:05:00.000-07:00

Rocki Passano

Eng 102-2513

D#6 HW#3

Rocki Rants

I reacted to a questionable comment about my D#4 HW#3 Research Proposal and I started writing it all over again. A monster has been created. I followed the directions for the assignment and thought I had done what was required. I received some great feedback from the peer review and made the necessary and suggested changes. This past Sunday, just as I was about to post the assignment my friend Alicia, a student at SCC, stopped by; Alicia happened to see a printed copy of my document and also the comment Devon made about the document. Based on her interruption, I reversed my own opinion of my work and allowed Alicia’s opinion to have power. I wrote, rewrote, and rewrote my document until very late last night. I am not totally happy with what I submitted to Turnitin, but I did expand on my outline somewhat. Hope it is what is required. Have a great weekend everyone.

rocki

Peer Review Reflection

2007-09-20T19:08:00.000-07:00

Thank You my classmates for presenting all of this wonderful reading material. I have not had an opportunity to fully review all of the Research Proposals, but the ones I have read are timely, interesting and I can't wait to read more. Those I have fully reviewed and posted comments are: Brittnay Salazar, James Piercy, Eric Covington, and Jacqueline Rodriguez. I hope I was helpful with the comments I made.

rocki

Deadline Reflection

2007-09-20T18:54:00.000-07:00

There are some amazing topics to review but I hae not had an opportunity to read all of them yet, but I will. I had an opportunity to really review four Research Projects thus far and they all have my attention. Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to post a lot of this assignment as I have been focusing on my research and reading, reviewing and commenting on Research Projects. I had been under the impression that we would be assigned Peer Review Groups and I did not keep my notes on the Research Projects I received and read without comment until Prof Adams advised we would not be assigned to groups. However, I have attempted to recreate my notes and am posting them as fast as I can. Lots of work to do....

Have a great weekend...I will be busy catching up:)

rocki

2007-09-13T21:35:00.000-07:00

Rocki Passano

English 102-2513

Deadline #4

Homework #3

Draft WP#1

13 September 2007

H-1B Visa Program

Draft #1

Writing Project #1: Writing a Research Proposal

Overview of what the Issue is that I am interested

The original H-1B Visa Program was established with the U.S. Immigration Act of 1990, to entice the very best and brightest the world offered to the U.S. to supplement areas of deficiency in the workforce. Congress currently has limited the number of H-1B visa applications to 65,000 each year with exemptions. Corporations and special interest groups advocate a desperate need to increase the current 65,000 quota cap citing a lack of qualified skilled Americans to fill their vacancy needs. There are groups and individuals who thoroughly discredit the need for an increase and advocate the program be shut down. What is the real truth for the increased demand for H-1Bs?

Focused research question;

“Although it is clear that the number of applicants for H1-B visas consistently exceeds the 65,000 total available in the US each year, is an increase in the H1-B Visas Program necessary?”

How and Why the topic is controversial;

Special interest groups AILA (American Immigration Lawyers Association), ITAA (Information Technology Association of America), several U.S. Senators and Governors are appealing to Congress to increase the current H-1B Visas limit. They all insist that there is a shortage of qualified skilled U.S. employees to fill vacant positions. According to Norman Matloff, professor of computer science at the University of California-Davis, the failure of the immigration reform bill only delays an increase in the number of H-1B visas and green cards allowing an opportunity for high-tech companies to exploit the system. “There’s no shortage of American workers for these jobs, “Matloff says. “I don’t like being lied to and the tech industry is lying to us. They simply want access to cheap labor.” He is not alone, Lou Dobbs, recently reported on his show Lou Dobbs Tonight that U.S. lawyers were giving advice to companies seeking foreign tech workers to circumvent regulations requiring Americans be given first shot at jobs that go to H-1B Visa holders. Bill Gates has decided that because his impassioned plea to Congress earlier this year, failed to get the immigration reform bill passed, has announced plans to open a development center in Canada. As you can see there are many sides to this topic and I haven’t even touched on the problems H-1B Visa holders face once they start working in the US.

Reflection on specific experiences with the issue

Several years ago my husband and I both worked in the high-tech industry in Silicon Valley in California. I worked for a technology based trade show company that had grown from a weekend bake-off at someone’s home in Monterrey to the tope trade show company in the world. The company was sold to Ziff-Davis after three successful years. Just before the sale became official and public knowledge, Ron and Jacqui Catterall of London, England we persuaded to sell their company to ZD and become a part of the organization through the H-1B Visa Program. The Catterall’s sold their business and home, packed and shipped their personal belongings, and moved to the U.S. They immediately began working for ZD, Ron Catterall as my immediate Director and his wife Jacqui as my subordinate. They lived in a hotel in Sunnyvale, CA for six months while having a home built. Ron was a great boss; he, his wife, my husband and I became friends and often socialized together. Two and one half years latte, during a dinner party entertaining friends, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrived at their door. ICE declared the Catterall’s were illegally in the United States and they had thirty days to leave the country for good. Ron and Jacqui were under the impression that Ziff Davis was processing the paper work to obtain green cards for them which was part of the legal agreement they had made. ZD failed to notify Ron and Jacqui they would not be applying for their green card; or that because they did not have green cards their H-1B status would expire in six months; or that ZD would be terminating their employment effective immediately the next day. ZD had contacted ICE prior to advising the Catterall’s of the change in their status or their termination. They moved to Mexico where they still reside, but to this day they still have problems visiting the U.S. It was all very strange because, Ziff Davis assisted when they applied for legitimate Social Security Identification, and they did pay taxes while on the ZD payroll.

Ziff Davis eventually sold the trade show portion of the company to a Korean/Japanese Conglomerate and I left the company when my husband became employed with another high tech company and we moved to Arizona.

At this new company, my husband traveled ninety percent of the time mostly to Europe and Asia, sometimes to New Zealand and Australia and of course throughout the U.S. and Canada. When he wasn’t flying all over the world, he was a technical instructor, training customer engineers on my husband’s company’s equipment. Shortly after the high tech stock bubble burst, mergers and acquisition then corporate downsizing, and the next thing we knew my husband is training hundreds of H-1Bs to do installations and training. Six months latter my husband and several hundred of his co-workers were laid off in a reduction in force. It took my husband five years with out of pocket expenses to keep his skill set competitive and leading edge to find another job in the technology field, as a contractor with no benefits.

During that time my husband sent out thousands of resumes and went to hundreds of interviews, but of course he is well over 35 (industry nondiscriminatory age cap) and was not hired with. Two or three H-1Bs could be hired instead of my husband for less than he would cost.

Purpose of Researching and Writing this issue;

I too don’t like being lied to in much the same way as Norman Matloff; I want to know the real reason behind this push for more foreign labor into the U.S and I don’t think that I am alone. Is it strictly financially motivation or is there a more complex agenda involved? If that is the case, corporations and politicians should be forced to admit the truth. Amazingly, Americans can adapt, improvise and overcome should the need present itself (i.e., The Space Race), but we don’t like being lied to. Consistently we are bombarded with the “buzz words” of manipulation like, “…jobs Americans won’t do”; “…not enough skilled workers to fill the vacancies”, etc. hasn’t endeared me to support the increase in H-1Bs. (Also, this reminds me of the “weapons of mass destruction”.) I would like to present some information that is seldom mentioned in the news.

My perspective and/or opinion on the issue right now;

Everything is an argument in my house and I have been told I have become somewhat of a cynic, to be honest, my opinion waivers as I learn more about the topic. I believe that everyone should be paid a fair living wage and that corporations paying millions of dollars to CEOs who don’t earn it is unfair to workers who hardly receive a living wage and even more unfair to those who are H-1B Visa holders. I don’t think corporations should be allowed to use age as a factor for hiring or lying off employees. However in an effort to stay competitive corporations find they truly don’t have the necessary skilled workers, they should be allowed to import labor from outside the country, but only if the need is genuine.

Who is my audience for my final research project;

This topic will be of interest to a wide variety of people from various walks of life, including but not limited to my professor and classmates, my family, and friends. Potential audience members could also include people whose lives are affected by the H-1B Visa Program, current engineering and IT students, as well as over age thirty-five engineers, programmers, and administrators.

Reading Reflections D#4

2007-09-12T16:57:00.000-07:00

D#4 Homework
English 102-2513
Rocki Passano
11 September 2007

Reading Reflections

The resources this week assisted in focusing my searches using online library catalogs, utilizing the Bedford Researcher Activities “Prepare to Search Online Library Catalogs”. This process forced me to investigate new resources to search for information on my topic, but had hesitated using in the past because I was not satisfied that I could verify accuracy. I have a tendency to go the original source (i.e. either House or Senate.gov; Library of Congress) to obtain verification of the information. Just because I saw it on TV, or read it in the newspaper, or heard it on the radio, that does not make it the complete story.

During my research I also remember an incident that occurred while I lived and worked in California with my immediate supervisor who had come to the U.S. as an H-1B Visa applicant. I consider them a relevant source for this topic whom I have contacted for an interview personally which is another source I had not thought of using for this project.

Also, the grammar assignment allowed me to improve my sentence clarity, assist with better usage of adjectives, edit for unity of purpose and to tightening my words and sentences.

Hope everyone is having fun!

rocki

2007-09-08T23:14:00.000-07:00

My Research Project www.bedfordresearcher.com

Create a Project Timeline

In your research log, start a project timeline like the one shown here. The steps in your process may differ slightly, but most research writing projects follow this general process. As you create your timeline, keep in mind any specific requirements of your assignment, such as handing in first drafts, revised first drafts, and so on.

Select your topic

Start Date:8/25/07

Completion Date: 9/1/07

Notes: H-1B Visas and Out of Control Government Spending

Explore your topic

Start Date: 9/1/07

Completion Date: 9/06/07

Notes:

Narrow your topic

Start Date: 9/1/07

Completion Date: 9/3/07

Notes: H1-B Visas

Develop your research question

Start Date: 9/2/07

Completion Date: 9/6/07

Notes: could be refined more

Get ready to collect and manage information

Start Date: 8/30/07

Completion Date: ongoing

Notes:

Collect information

Start Date: 8/28/07

Completion Date: 9/12/07

Notes:

Read & evaluate information

Start Date: 8/30/07

Completion Date: ongoing

Notes:

Take notes

Start Date: 8/28/07

Completion Date: ongoing

Notes:

Organize your information

Start Date:9/15/07

Completion Date: 9/17/07

Notes:

Develop your thesis statement

Start Date:9/16/07

Completion Date: 9/18/07

Notes:

Plan your document

Start Date:

Completion Date:

Notes:

Write the first draft of your document

Start Date:

Completion Date:

Notes:

Review & revise your first draft

Start Date:

Completion Date:

Notes:

Write & revise additional drafts

Start Date:

Completion Date:

Notes:

Edit your draft

Start Date:

Completion Date:

Notes:

Design your document

Start Date:

Completion Date:

Notes:

Finalize in-text and end-of-text citations

Start Date:

Completion Date:

Notes:

Publish & submit your document

Start Date:

Completion Date:

Notes:

2007-09-08T23:10:00.000-07:00

My Research Project www.bedfordresearcher.com

Create a Research Proposal

Use the following to create a formal research proposal.

1. Provide the working title for your project.

H1-B Visas

2. Describe your issue.

An increase in H1-B Visas Program is being requested before Congress, by corporations, their claim is that there are no highly skilled workers in the US to fill positions.

3. Describe your purpose for working on this project.

Several years ago, my husband’s company had a RIF six months after hiring a number of H1-B visas workers. After being trained by Americans, the Americans were riffed and the H1-B Visas holders took their jobs. People need to be aware of the real reason for the request, not just the propaganda.

4. Describe your readers’ needs and interests.

My readers will have factual information regarding the total number of H1-B visas issued, the positions for which they are being requested as well as the number of Americans who are available and qualified for these ositions.

5. State your research question.

Although it is clear that the number of applicants for H1-B visas consistently exceeds the 65,000 total H1-B visas available in the US each year, is an increase in the H1-B Visas Program necessary?

6. Briefly review key findings about your issue from the sources you found as you explored your topic.

Corporations have sponsored lobbyist to help influence Congressivotes to favor increasing the H-1B Visas quotas.

Lobbyist groups have influenced IEEE-USA to soften and eventually reverse its position on the H-1B Visas Increase

Department of Commerce (June 5,2000) reported that H1-Bs accounted for 28% of all Information Technology industry hires requiring at least a Bachelor’s degree

Sun Microsystems (a Silicon Valley Company), has lobbied Congress heavily since 1998 for increases in the H1-B quotas. Department of Labor records show Sun Microsystems has applied for a steadily increasing number of H1-B Visas: 751 in 1999; 1870 in 2000; 5179 in 2001. In 2002 a suite was filed against Sun alleging that Sun laid off Americans and replaced them with H-1Bs.

Older American IT workers making more than $80,000 a year are inadvertently affected by the H1B program because companies can legally lay off the older American worker and replace one with two H-1B visa applicants at $35,000 per year.

7. Indicate how you’ll locate additional arguments, ideas, and information about your issue.

Because the H-1B Visa Program is once again being presented for increases to Congress, information is available on a daily basis from newspapers, web, radio, TV, magazines, and the Daily Congressional Record.

8. Include your project timeline.

See rocki's timeline document

9. Include your working bibliography.

See annotated biblipgraphy

10. Discuss the key challenges you face (optional).

N/A

11. Identify specific funding requests (optional).

N/A

2007-09-06T20:30:00.000-07:00

Rocki Passano

Eng 102-2315

3 September 2007

D#3 HW#2

Following the Bedford Researcher tutorials and activities, I selected two topics, and utilizing the Bedford Researcher Activities to evaluate, refine, consider and narrow my scope. Following the activities I was able to evaluate the evidence presented in scholarly or professional journals, magazines and or newspaper articles, interviews. Additionally, utilizing Bedford researcher tutorials and activities, I evaluated the resources I selected for this project thus far, including web sites, library resources, TV, and government resources I utilized Creating a Research Proposal from the book to consolidate what I have been able to do so far. (FYI, I accomplished a lot of this before I did my reading and didn’t document separately.) I also utilized the Bedford Researcher activities SelectRole to determine the perspective I would use to write this project. I had some difficulties because my expectations for this project are still somewhat elevated and my outcome/follow up action has not yet been defined. I made the assumption that my readers would be Professor Devon C. Adams, my classmates from Eng 102-2315 Fall 2007, and my family (if it is a good paper, then my friends as well). The research question at the end of all of these activities could possibly be refined additionally, but at this point the question is – “Although it is clear that the number of applicants for H1-B visas consistently exceeds the 65,000 total available in the US each year, is an increase in the H1-B Visas Program necessary?

2007-09-06T20:28:00.000-07:00

Rocki Passano

Eng 102-2513

3 September 2007

Reading Reflection D#3

I have to admit that I am forcing myself to write, I really don’t have anything significant to say. A first, my husband says and he is right. I usually have so much to say, I ramble forever, but not today. Anyway…

This week’s reading activities assisted in deciding the focus of my topic and the approach to take when writing about my topic. I found the activities very useful in fleshing out my topic. I started with two topics but after the reading and activities, I realized the two topics were related and could be included as one topic if I narrowed my objective. The web page was interesting, and reiterated the information from the Bedford Researcher. I find the Researcher Room as well as the activities to be so useful it will always be a part of my writing future. After dealing with my technophobia, I was able to enjoy reading several of my classmate’s blogs. Some really good topics are being discussed and I look forward to their progression.

D#2,HW#5 Reflections

2007-09-02T16:12:00.000-07:00

My interest in excessive government spending peaked over the last seven years but began when I worked in government with duties that included fiscal responsibilities. Being audited by four separate government accountability groups could result in losing your job. For some reason this longer is the case. Many major government agencies have failed Government Accountability Office audits during the last seven years. Remedies offered to correct problems repeatedly go without response without correcting any of the areas identified by GAO. GAO officials have reported these issues to the Administration and Congress with no changes. During the period shortly after “9/11” no bid contracts were awarded at precedent setting records. It has been reported that many of these companies are not longer in business. Further a report that millions in cash were shipped to Iraq with no accountability. Many Americans are not aware of the excesses that tax dollars are being spent with no accounting. If often wonder why no one is being held accountable or responsible for this problem, especially when if I failed an audit I was only given six months to correct the problems identified or loose my job.

The H-1B Visa issue began as an investigation into the Immigration Issue. The immensity of this issue forced me to narrow my topic and find something that had personally influenced my opinion. I choose the H1-B visa issue because it personally touché my family six years ago when my husband’s company had a RIF and the sixty new hires he had trained over a six month period prior were no part of the RIF. Those employees were all H1-B Visa holders and could not be part of the RIF. Two hundred American employees and friends lost their jobs and are still not recovered from the ordeal as of today. Currently, corporations in the US are requesting an increase in the number of H1-B visas issued each year. There is also great opposition to such a request from American workers who would be affected adversely by the increase.

D#2, HW#4 Everything's An Argument / Bedford Researcher

2007-09-02T13:42:00.000-07:00

Rocki Passano

Eng 102-2513 D#2, HW#4

Devon C. Adams
August 30, 2007

Everything’s An Argument

Since bringing this book home from the bookstore, my home has been buzzing. My husband thinks it will be beneficial to me. Every discussion in our home invariably becomes an argument. My husband loves a debate (the old fashion kind), even when we are in agreement, he will push a discussion in that direction. The academic distinction between argument happens in our home daily (…searching for so version of truth, using evidence and reasons) to become as informed as possible concerning an issue. Then we employ persuasion when informing our friends and neighbors about the issue.

I was intrigued by the categorizing system, Stasis theory (pg20) specifically the history of Greek and Roman civilizations usage of this theory to examine legal cases in the past. I made use of the modern version of this theory to select the subjects for my assignments. Following each of the steps/questions, I was able to identify what happened, define my argument, and begin developing a proposal argument for each of my topics.

By narrowing my topic from the very general Immigration Issue, I checked on the total number of visas the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Agency allows into the country each year. The US currently admits more immigrant visa entrants into America each year than all other countries combined allow. I discovered a number of different types of visas, including H1-B visas which is currently back in the headlines.

Free writing is dangerous for me I have already used one 80 sheet notebook (front and back) with notes and sources whose discussions I want to expand on. A lot of information I have obtained on these to topics originated from conversations with strangers, talk radio, certain news shows, newspapers, friends, the web, associates, but my best resources are Lou Dobbs and the Daily Show. I make notes doing the show so that I can fact check and get additional information later.

D#2, HW Deadline Reflection

2007-09-02T13:14:00.000-07:00

My Research Project

The techniques and tools I found at Bedford Researcher guide me through this process logically and methodically, forcing me to stay focused. My Project Timeline has been printed so that I can keep a copy with me to update as I accomplish my tasks.

I appreciated “What’s My Purpose” in the Bedford Researcher (p8) completely applicable to this assignment; “…completing the assignment as required, learning something new, improving your writing skill, convincing others to adopt your point of view about an issue, and getting a good grade.”

The help I received from my classmates and Prof Adams, helped me realize that I was really trying to hard and needed to take my time relax and look at thing logically instead of assuming things were more complex than they were.

I seriously thought about dropping this class by Friday my frustration level was so high, but I want this class and to succeed in it. After discussion with my husband, I have decided not to let the technology intimadate me, I am going to drop another less challenging class.

D#2, HW#3 Annotated Bibliography 1

2007-09-02T11:58:00.000-07:00

Rocki Passano

Professor Devon C. Adams

English 102-2315 D#2, HW#3a

August 30, 2007

Government Spending -- Annotated Bibliography

Walker, David M. “Spending Is Out of Control”.

Business Week: 11/14/2005 Issue 3959, p164-164, 1p, 1c

Reports on the fiscal irresponsibility of the Federal Government. David Walker, the Controller General of the United States claims the federal deficit is too high and predicts it will continue to increase with the onset of baby boomers reaching retirement. The Comptroller General encourages the President and Congress to get spending under control. Walker points out the dangers the nation will face if strategic spending planning is not conducted in short order. He includes re-imposing budget controls for both tax and spending and to begin the very important and much needed review of all major federal spending programs.

Cavanaugh, Tim. “Contract Killings.”

Reason: Jan2007, Vol. 38 Issue 8, p10-10 1/4p

This article gives an opinioned summary of the General Accountability Office’s September report which according to the author announces that “the United States generally has not met its goals for reconstruction activities in Iraq in the areas of oil, electricity and water”.

Posner, Michael. “Walker: Waste in Contracting Impossible to Eradicate.”

Congress Daily: 7/17/2007, p 11-11, 1p

The article reports on the Comptroller General Walker’s testimony at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on July 17, 2007. In his testimony, Walker cites wasteful spending by the Transportation Security Association, Coast Guard’s Deepwater project for new vessels as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Trilogy computer improvement project.

D#2, HW#3, Annotated Bibliography 2

2007-09-02T11:57:00.000-07:00

Rocki Passano

Professor Devon C. Adams

English 102-2315 -- D#2, HW#3b

August 30, 2007

H-1B Visas: Annotated Bibliography

Matloff, Norman Dr. “Debunking the Myth of a Desperate Software Labor Shortage

Testimony to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee; Subcommittee on Immigration”.

http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/itaa.real.html

Dr. Matloff is a tenured professor of Computer Science at UC Davis, received several honors, and is well published. I feel his work is reliable, factual and will be helpful in a research paper on H1-B Visas. This subject and document are relevant as the H1-B Visa Increase is being brought back into the forefront of the immigration issue, this congressional session and will probably be relevant in the upcoming Presidential election.

Gibson, Stan. “The H-1B Visa Bill: Here’s My Vote”.

PC Week: 10/12/98, Vol. 15 Issue 41, p90, 1/3p

This article presents comprehensive opinion regarding raising the H-1B visa limit to 115,000. Also, the article cites Dr. Norman Matloff of US Davis as a critic of the bill.

Hayes, Frank. “H-1Bs and Students”.

Computerworld: 4/292007, Vol. 41 Issue 15, p54-54 2/3p

This article provides an analysis of the number of Computer Science under-graduate and graduate students in the US. Also looks at cause and effect surrounding interest/demand for Computer Science graduates.

D#2, HW#1 Reading Reflection

2007-09-02T11:44:00.000-07:00

The assignments are great. I feel as though I am part of a puzzle!

Prepare to Manage Information and Time is pertinent to me as I have a tendency to spend too much time on one aspect as I begin a project. While researching on the web, I lost track of time, and the locations of resources I need. I have been forced to become “harsh” with family, friends and neighbors who don’t respect my need for school time. I was forced to use “lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency for me. This has forced me to establish a daily working calendar for myself detailing my daily schedule of task to be accomplished, specifically for my school, but also including household stuff like cooking, cleaning, chauffeuring, telephone time, etc.,

I feel that once I am more adept with the tools and resources available, the structure provided will be beneficial for all of my classes, current and in the future. There is so much information available I have spent hours reading and checking sources. The delicious account is extremely useful and I have become somewhat addicted to the EBSCO host tool for storing search material while in the process of searching so that I can file my little treasurers even if they are irrelevant to the project I am currently working on. I know I can use them later when the need arises.

Week Ending 31 August 2007

2007-09-01T17:12:00.000-07:00

Thank everyone for the offer to help deal with my dyslexic technology issue. I will be contacting you with my questions as soon as I figure out how to use the Google chat. This week has been quite the challenge there was a lot of informative reading, research, and writing. I find it all very exciting. I think I am less intimidated with the technology and eager to delve into utilizing all these wonderful tools that Devon has made available to us. It is wonderful to have a good instructor, one that when the class is over you have learned something and take something with you that will benefit you for the rest of your endeavors life. This class will also help with three of the other four classes I am currently taking.

Rocki

2007-08-26T13:15:00.000-07:00

“Deadline #1, HW8, Help”

Current and previous on line classes I have taken at MCC usually involved WebCT and or Blackboard Learning Systems or Course Compass Learning Systems. I now have four classes and four different learning systems. I am unsure if my limited technology skills will be sufficient for me to accomplish all necessary aspects of this course. However, I hope my technical abilities improve. In the past, each time I moved prior to meeting my husband, my friends, who were NASA Engineers, would provide me with a color coded diagram detailing how to connect my stereo. I was never completely successful even with a diagram.

I had problems getting my account at Turnitin; I would receive a message advising of site problems with approximate date and time to return. I was successful registering my account this morning. I am still having problems getting a successful download from filehippo; however, I have contacted their tech support as I received error message codes. I am still unsure how to find other blogs from my classmates, but will be working on this challenge as I complete the next deadline.

Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated.
Good Luck everyone!

Rocki Passano

Rocki's Intro

2007-08-22T18:16:00.000-07:00

I am new to the blogosphere, a little nervous about making mistakes, but very excited to be using new advances in internet technology. I had no idea that when I signed on for English 102 that I would have an opportunity to advance my technology skills. I look forward to improving my writing skills, research, and organization, as a result of participating in this class.

I am currently attempting to decide what I want to do when I grow up. One plan is to complete an Associates Degree at MCC, continuing on to ASU to get my BS degree. Eventually, I would like to begin psychological counseling for pre teens.