Hightower Lowdown

Ah, the ingenuity ofAmerica’s corporate leaders!They never cease to amazewith their clever ability to stifftheir own employees.The latest schemeinvolves an obscure provisionin our immigration laws.It’s called the L-1 visa, andapparently the “L” stands for“loophole.” It’s certainly a bigone, allowing such corporationsas Cigna, GeneralElectric, and Merrill Lynch toimport low-wage technologyworkers from India to replaceAmerican employees.The L-1 visa was meant toallow U.S. firms to transfer afew of their own foreignemployees from an overseasbranch into companyoffices here. But corporationsare driving a movingtruck right through this loophole,having already used itto bring some 325,000 hightechemployees fromabroad, mostly from India.Here’s how the game isplayed: The foreign workersare hired wholesale byIndian-based recruitmentfirms that then ship them totheir U.S. branches, claimingthat they are L-1 transfers.Once here, the workers arecontracted to U.S. corporations.Technically, the immigrantsare still employed bythe Indian firms—but thebottom line is that majorU.S. corporations have beenable to smuggle in foreignworkers and pay them athird to a half less than theAmericans they replace.The L-1 visa does notrequire that imported workersbe paid the prevailingwage, nor is there a limit onhow many can be broughtin. To help stop this wagebustingripoff, call Rep.John Mica: 202-225-4035.