Senators Considering Plan to Double Visas for High-Tech Workers

A bipartisan group of eight senators is considering a plan that would double the number of visas available to highly skilled foreign workers, as well as sharply increase the number of green cards available to foreign students who graduate from an American university with a degree in science, technology, engineering or math, two people familiar with the negotiations said.

The senators met for two hours Thursday morning to discuss the details of the plan, which is likely to become part of broader immigration overhaul legislation that they hope to introduce in early April, and were to meet again Thursday afternoon. The senators hope to finish an agreement concerning the H-1B visa program, which covers highly skilled temporary foreign workers, often in high-tech fields.

The Senate proposal would roughly double the number of available H-1B visas, which is currently capped at 65,000 per year. The Washington Post first reported on the proposal Thursday morning.

Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois and a member of the bipartisan group, has privately expressed concerns about the H-1B visa program, and is said to be upset about the current proposal. Mr. Durbin opposes increasing the cap on H-1B visas without offering worker and job protections; he believes that the H-1B program, which was originally created to bring highly-skilled workers to the United States, is now being used for outsourcing, and does not offer enough protections for American workers.

On Monday, Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and a ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced a bill, which Mr. Durbin supports, aimed at reforming the H-1B program. Mr. Grassley’s bill would require all companies to make a “good faith” effort to hire American workers before looking overseas.

“Somewhere along the line, the H-1B program got side-tracked,” Mr. Grassley said in a statement. “The program was never meant to replace qualified American workers, but it was instead intended as a means to fill gaps in highly specialized areas of employment. When times are tough, like they are now, it’s especially important that Americans get every consideration before an employer looks to hire from abroad. The legislation will benefit the American worker, while still ensuring that U.S. companies get the specialized workers they need.”

The new H-1B proposal under consideration is a big victory for the high-tech industry, but has raised flags elsewhere, particularly among the labor community.

“The H-1B visa process needs urgent reform to make sure that the lofty rhetoric employed by the tech industry actually reflects how the program is implemented, rather than facilitating the exploitation of immigrant workers and the reduction of wages in the United States,” said Jeff Hauser, a spokesman for the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the nation’s largest federation of unions.

Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York and a member of the bipartisan group, said the challenge would be finding a way to welcome high-skilled workers into the country, while still protecting American workers.

“There’s broad consensus in letting more high tech people into the country but what we want to do is make sure that those kinds of mills, that don’t really end up helping America but rather might be mills where you get training here and go back home, can’t be allowed to continue the way they do,” Mr. Schumer said. “I think you can do both, you can be very generous in terms of high-tech coming to the country, but at the same time, you want to stop these companies that seem to take advantage of the H-1B program and don’t live within its spirit and I believe our proposal will do both.”

Though the Senate group is expected to release its legislation after the upcoming two-week Congressional recess, and members stress that the negotiations are ongoing and little has been finalized, details of the plan are increasingly started to leak out. The group is also expected to include a 13-year path to citizenship in their final bill â€" a 10-year wait for a green card, and another three years until full naturalization.

Still, some in the immigration community are growing frustrated, eager to see a bill this week. Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued a frustrated plea Wednesday for the group to speed up the pace of producing legislation. And on Thursday, more than a dozen immigration activities staged a protest in Mr. Schumer’s office, demanding immediate action on immigration legislation. Some were arrested.

Mr. Schumer, when asked about the protests and arrests in his office, said that he understood the pro immigration community’s eagerness for legislation, but counseled patience.

“I understand people’s frustration, people have waited a long time, but we are real close for the first time of coming up with a bipartisan agreement that has a darn good chance of becoming law,” he said.