Unions, tech firms gripe on immigrant bill

Like politicians in Washington, Massachusetts business and labor leaders are finding plenty to gripe about in the proposed overhaul of America's immigration laws.

High-technology firms worry that Congress won't do enough to increase the supply of well-educated immigrants they say they need to keep their companies growing.

A union leader who represents many low-skill workers says the law could disrupt family ties and turn foreign-born workers into second-class citizens.

And a spokesman for Associated Industries of Massachusetts criticized as unfair the proposed crackdown on companies that hire illegal immigrants.

"If this is in fact the best we can do, it's probably a step forward. But a smallish one," said Andre Mayer, senior vice president of communications and research at Associated Industries of Massachusetts.

Mayer said businesses don't have the resources to check the immigration status of job applicants, and that government should perform this task. "Employers would like to be dealing with a situation where they know that the people are in the country legally and they can hire them," he said.

Two things are driving the effort to overhaul immigration laws: concern about the presence of an estimated 12 million people who are in the country illegally, and employers' demands for foreign-born workers.

The effort took on new urgency last week, after the Senate and the Bush administration said they had agreed on the outline of a immigration bill.

The legislation, now before the Senate, faces fierce challenges from conservatives, who say it would amount to a grant of amnesty to illegal immigrants, and from immigrant-rights groups, who consider the proposals too punitive.

One provision would shift immigration policy away from a preference for applicants with family ties to US citizens, toward a system that assigns points for better-educated applicants.

A point system, Mayer said, would help enlarge the pool of well-educated workers needed by manufacturers and technology firms. But companies would benefit even more by eliminating most restrictions on well-educated immigrants, he said.

"I believe that we should be at least moving in the direction of opening our doors to high-skilled people coming here," he said.

Tod Loofbourrow, founder and chief executive of the software maker Authoria Inc., in Waltham, agreed the bill would not provide enough skilled workers. Loofbourrow has little use for a points system, because it would apply to immigrants with any kind of higher education, while companies like Authoria need people with specific technical skills.

"There's no relationship between the demand and supply," he said. Loofbourrow would prefer a major expansion of the H-1b visa program, which allows foreigners with specialized skills to work in the United States for up to six years. This year's quota of 65,000 H-1b applications was used up in a single day -- a measure of the intense demand for skilled foreigners.

The bill would raise the cap to 115,000, with provision to increase it to 180,000 if demand for workers is exceptionally high.

Loofbourrow said all foreigners who receive graduate degrees from US universities should be put on the fast track to citizenship.

"I think every advanced degree from a US college that goes to a foreign national should come with a green card stapled to it," he said.

Rocio Saenz, president of Local 615 of the Service Employees International Union, said the bill could help residents here illegally join the mainstream of American life. She denounced the call for a points system, saying it would make it more difficult for people to come legally to the United States to reunite with family members.

"You're going to have a class of workers who lack family ties and lack community roots," Saenz said. She called the plan an affront to family values.

Saenz also criticized the proposal to allow 400,000 people to enter the country as temporary "guest workers." She compared the plan to the "bracero" program, which admitted Mexicans as temporary agricultural workers, starting in 1942. The system was abolished in 1964, amid claims that workers were being abused and exploited.

"When temporary workers come, they have been treated as second-class citizens," said Saenz, who favors a plan that would give all foreign-born workers a path to US citizenship.

Art Canter, president of the Massachusetts Lodging Association, had an unusual reaction to the immigration bill: nearly complete satisfaction.

"Overall," he said, "I think it's wonderful that they are finally looking at a comprehensive immigration reform bill." He has no major complaints about the bill, he said.

Canter is happy with the guest worker plan, because so many inns and hotels need to quickly hire extra seasonal help, particularly in summer. He also likes the idea of giving visas to people currently here illegally, because businesses could hire them with no fear of punishment.

Canter said his chief worry about the bill is that it's likely to undergo substantial modification as it makes its way through Congress.

"Call me when it's about to be approved," he said.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.