Business owner voices concerns over immigration law hurdles

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Though she’s an immigrant herself, Carmen Larsen took a long time to come around to the idea of hiring immigrants for her own company.

But having turned that corner eight years ago, Larsen understands the advantages and complications of hiring immigrants. She also has developed strong feelings about the problems with the current immigration system, as well as some clear ideas about how it ought to be changed.

As a board member of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Montgomery County, Md., Larsen is among the nation’s business owners who are encouraging Congress to adopt immigration legislation that addresses more than just enforcement problems.

An enforcement-only bill passed in the House in December has been broadly criticized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, its Hispanic counterpart, immigrant advocacy groups, labor unions and religious institutions, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Those organizations are lobbying for legislation that also would address systemic problems with legal immigration and provide a way for illegal immigrants currently in the country to regularize their status.

For Larsen, it was one person’s story that started to bring a whole range of immigration-related complications into perspective.

As the owner of AQUAS — Automated Quality Applications and Systems — a small Internet technology and management consulting company in Chevy Chase, Md., Larsen assumed that the costs and paperwork necessary to hire skilled workers from outside the United States would be far more trouble than it was worth.

"I used to say you had to be a permanent resident or a citizen," she said. "It was just simpler."

Born in Italy to Ecuadorean parents who were part of the diplomatic corps, Larsen came to the United States with them at age 16.

Having attended American schools abroad, she said, she never really thought of herself as anything but an American.

"I was an American long before I got here," she said. She graduated from Georgetown University in 1973 and became a U.S. citizen not long after marrying an American when she was in her early 20s.

So, in running her business, Larsen didn’t feel any particular empathy for people whose immigrant stories were dramatically different from her own.

Then, a Russian who had been an unpaid intern for AQUAS asked Larsen to sponsor his application for a visa that would allow him to return to work there.

He had been an asset as an intern and Larsen was pleased at the prospect of getting him back. He even offered to take care of the paperwork himself and to delay his own salary to offset the extra expense to the company of paying immigration processing fees, she said.

"As it turned out, I really didn’t have to do much," she explained, and the Russian man became a valued employee. Since then Larsen has continued to hire immigrants for her staff of about 24.

She has learned a lot about what employers and immigrants go through to meet the requirements for working legally in the United States. To start with, paperwork and related fees to obtain an H1B visa, the category for skilled workers, each cost her company between $3,600 and $4,000, she said. Although few stay in the country long enough to collect on Social Security, and they are ineligible for unemployment compensation, employers must pay into both systems for H1B workers.

Larsen ticked off other problems:

— Employers of people with H1B visas are required to pay them at least the rate set by the U.S. Labor Department, no matter what the prevailing wage is for that job.

"That tends to be much higher than we would ever pay someone in the current market," Larsen said. Yet, when her company gets U.S. government contracts, the maximum wage payable to workers fulfilling those contracts also is set — at a rate lower than what the Labor Department requires her to pay them.

"I get contracts from the federal government that would never pay the wages they require me to pay," she said.

— The foreign-citizen spouses and children of workers with H1B visas are allowed to join them in the United States, but they are not allowed to hold jobs here. With a business based in one of the most costly residential areas in the country, "we know that in this area a family needs two incomes," she said. So when an H1B employee brings a family, "we have people living in substandard conditions because there is no second income," she added.

— Even getting a driver’s license for a legal immigrant is complicated. Larsen learned that in Maryland, an H1B visa holder must make an appointment with a particular office of the Motor Vehicle Administration. A staff member of that office interviews the applicant and reviews extra documents to make sure he or she is eligible to apply for a license. Although the state has no role in enforcing immigration laws, Larsen and her employee encountered an attitude of suspicion at the Motor Vehicle Administration that the immigrant was trying to get away with something illegal, she said.

"Are we encouraging people to come in without documents?" Larsen asked. "I think we are." She said she understands and accepts that there should be extra requirements for immigrants to get permission to work. But she believes some laws — such as the prohibition on spouses of H1B visa holders getting jobs — serve little practical purpose and only encourage people to do things illegally to survive.

"Business owners tend to want to do things the right way," Larsen said. "We don’t want to deal with undocumented workers. It’s bad for business."

But in the United States, she said, "the reality is we’ve set up a system that encourages people to come in illegally" because doing things the legal way is prohibitively difficult.

She told of being approached by a man who had obtained legal residency under an amnesty program years ago. One condition of his visa requires him to keep working. He had lost his job and needed an employer to sponsor him in order to keep his visa. That sponsorship will cost the new employer $5,000 in fees, a hefty price tag for a new, untested employee.

In the meantime, to pay his bills, "he has to be one of those people working underground," she said.

Larsen, who’s active in two Maryland Catholic parishes, said she was only vaguely aware of the Justice for Immigrants awareness campaign started last year by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Though the principles she voices echo those of the church in some ways, she said her perspectives about immigration have come largely from her experience as a business owner and from watching the changes around her.

For instance, she worries about the effects of having a whole community of people in an underground economy who avoid all contact with the government.

"It makes them more vulnerable to crime if they’re not going to be forthcoming with the police for fear of being deported," she said. "So much is at stake."

Dueña de negocio expresa preocupaciones por obstáculos de ley de inmigración

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Aunque ella misma es inmigrante, a Carmen Larsen le tomó un tiempo largo llegar a la idea de emplear inmigrantes para su propia compañía.

Pero habiendo doblado esa esquina hace ocho años, Larsen entiende las ventajas y las complicaciones de emplear inmigrantes.

Como miembro de la junta de la Cámara de Comercio Hispana del Condado Montgomery, Maryland, Larsen está entre los dueños de negocio de la nación que están exhortando al congreso a que apruebe legislación de inmigración que trate más que sólo los problemas de la aplicación de la ley.

Un proyecto de ley tratando solamente el control de la inmigración ilegal que fue aprobado en la Cámara en diciembre ha sido criticado ampliamente por la Cámara de Comercio de Estados Unidos, su contraparte hispana, grupos de defensa de inmigrantes, sindicatos laborales e instituciones religiosas, incluyendo la Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de Estados Unidos.

Para Larsen eso era la historia de una persona que comenzó a poner en perspectiva una gama completa de complicaciones relacionadas con la inmigración.

Como dueña de AQUAS -– Aplicaciones y Sistemas de Calidad Automatizados — compañía pequeña de consultoría de tecnología y gerencia de Internet en Chevy Chase, Maryland, Larsen asumía que los costos y la documentación necesarios para emplear trabajadores diestros de fuera de Estados Unidos sería mucho más problemático que lo que vale.

Nacida en Italia de padres ecuatorianos que eran parte del cuerpo diplomático, Larsen vino a Estados Unidos con ellos a la edad de 16 años.

Habiendo asistido a escuelas estadounidenses en el exterior, ella dijo, nunca se consideró verdaderamente otra cosa que no fuera estadounidense.

Así pues, al operar su negocio, Larsen no sentía empatía particular por las personas cuyas historias de inmigrantes eran dramáticamente diferentes a la suya.

Entonces, un ruso que había hecho pasantía sin paga para AQUAS le pidió a Larsen que patrocinara su solicitud de visa que le permitiría a él volver a trabajar allí.

Él había sido valioso como pasante y Larsen estaba complacida con la perspectiva de tenerlo de nuevo. Él hasta ofreció encargarse de la documentación y retrasar su propio sueldo para compensar el costo adicional de la compañía al pagar honorarios de proceso de inmigración, dijo ella.

El ruso se convirtió en un empleado valorado. Desde entonces Larsen ha continuado empleando inmigrantes para su personal de unos 24.

Ella ha aprendido mucho sobre lo que pasan patronos e inmigrantes para satisfacer los requisitos para trabajar legalmente en Estados Unidos. Para comenzar, la documentación y los honorarios relacionados con obtener una visa H1B, la categoría para trabajadores diestros, cada uno la cuesta a su compañía entre $3.600 y $4.000, dijo ella. Aunque pocos se quedan en el país el tiempo suficiente para recibir Seguro Social y ellos son inelegibles para compensación por desempleo, los patronos deben aportar a ambos sistemas por los trabajadores H1B.

A los ciudadanos extranjeros que sean cónyuges o hijos de los trabajadores con visas H1B se les permite unirse a ellos en Estados Unidos, pero a ellos no se les permite tener empleos aquí. Con un negocio basado en una de las áreas residenciales más costosas del país, "sabemos que en esta zona una familia necesita dos ingresos", dijo ella. Entonces cuando un empleado H1B trae su familia, "tenemos gente viviendo en condiciones inferiores porque no hay un segundo ingreso", añadió ella.

Hasta conseguir una licencia de conductor para un inmigrante legal es complicado. Larsen se enteró que en Maryland un portador de visa de H1B debe hacer una cita con una oficina en particular de la Administración de Vehículos de Motor. Aunque el estado no tiene ningún rol en aplicar las leyes de inmigración, Larsen y su empleado encontraron una actitud en la Administración de Vehículos de Motor como si el inmigrante estuviera intentando lograr algo ilegal, dijo ella.

"¿Estamos animando a la gente a entrar sin documentos?" preguntó Larsen. "Yo creo que sí". Ella dijo que entiende y acepta que debe haber requisitos adicionales para que los inmigrantes consigan el permiso de trabajo. Pero ella cree que algunas leyes — tales como la prohibición de que los cónyuges de los portadores de la visa H1B consigan empleo — sirven pocos propósitos prácticos y sólo animan a la gente a que hagan las cosas ilegalmente.

"Los dueños de negocios tienden a desear hacer las cosas en la manera correcta", dijo Larsen. "No queremos tratar con trabajadores indocumentados. Eso es malo para el negocio".

Pero en Estados Unidos, dijo ella, "la realidad es que hemos establecido un sistema que anima a la gente a entrar ilegalmente" porque hacer las cosas en un modo legal es prohibitivamente difícil.

Larsen dijo que sus perspectivas sobre la inmigración han venido en gran parte de su experiencia como dueña de negocio y observando los cambios a su alrededor.

Por ejemplo, ella se preocupa por los efectos de tener toda una comunidad de gente en una economía subterránea que evita toda la comunicación con el gobierno.

"Esto los hace más vulnerables al crimen si ellos no van a ser comunicativos con el policía por miedo a ser deportados", dijo ella. "Tanto está en riesgo".