Batting for India, five former US Ambassadors have urged the US Congress to remove provisions in the omnibus immigration reform legislation that target top Indian IT companies with well-established business operations in America.
“The Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation that has passed the US Senate unfortunately differentiates between US providers of IT and Indian IT companies which provide the same services to American businesses using virtually the same labour pool sourced from India,” said Thomas R Pickering, Frank G Wisner, Richard Celeste, Robert Blackwill and David C Mulford, who have all served as successive US Ambassadors to India between 1992 and 2009.
In joint letters to Democratic and Republican leaders in the Senate and the House of Representatives, they voiced concern that the high-skilled visa provisions in the legislation “are not in US economic interests and they complicate our relations with India” at a time when the US has made India one of its premier strategic partners.
The envoys’ representation that comes just ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s US visit later this month points out that “American competitiveness and vitality depend heavily on robust US-India commercial ties”. They pointed out that the bill will block Indian IT companies as well as significant US IT service providers from providing these essential services –and free-market competition – to leading US-based multinational companies.
“Equally important, such legislation sends a protectionist signal to our Indian counterparts -- a signal normally reserved for nations with whom we have non-productive relations,” they said, underscoring the point that India does not fit this category.
Mooting revision of sections and removal of features that would limit market entry of IT professionals who work for so-called Visa-dependent IT companies, the envoys commented: “These provisions, currently in the Senate bill and any which may be included in the counterpart pending House bill, are virtually punitive and cry out for redress and excision.”
Pleading for a legislation that supports the growth of the US-India knowledge economy, they said: “Any comprehensive immigration reform legislation approved by Congress must appreciate the mutual benefit of deepening the US-India partnership, which is vitally important to our two countries and the global economy.”
The letters have been sent out to Republican House Speaker John A. Boehner, Democrat House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi, Democrat Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and Republican Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell.
The Prime Minister will be here for a meeting with President Barack Obama on September 27 in what would be a short “working visit” before he proceeds to New York for the UN General Assembly session.
“We hope the visit of PM Manmohan Singh and his meeting with President Obama will reinvigorate the US-India ties, prompting the US Administration and Congress to take a second look and eliminate specific discriminatory provisions in the immigration reform bill, which will hurt American competitiveness and damage US-India commercial ties,” US India Business Council president Ron Somers said.
In a letter sent along with that of the former envoys, Somers said any comprehensive immigration reform legislation approved by Congress must appreciate the mutual benefit of deepening US-India partnership that is vital to both countries and the global economy.