Your thoughts on H1B contractors in the US

[PCIncorrect]

I work in an industry that uses H1B contractors or employees for that matter to the fullest extent possible. I have watched this industry lay-off american workers by the thousands because US companies get tax breaks and cheaper labor this way, but in the long run because of language barriers it still costs the comapny as much if not more because of having to re-do the work down the road. What are your thoughts?

My thoughts are companies should not get tax breaks for using these type of workers and these workers should be taxed at a higher rate for working here.

["shazbat"]

The actual numbers of true H1B holders is a small fraction of the estimated 11 million aliens currently in the country.
They are seeking immigration through the system via the legal channels.
I have no problem with them. They are obeying our work visa and immigration policy and laws.
To compare them with the multitude of illegal aliens denigrates their character and position.
I am not familiar with your industry or the socio-economic impact on it by these policies.
I am against undermining the wage structure of the nation by hiring workers at grossly underscale wages. I am also against the ease with which companies can outsource work to off shore concerns as well.
This though is not specifically an economic thread so I will not slide off into that arena which would require much more room than we have here.
What is your industry and what impact do you believe the influx of H1B workers have on it? Please expand.

[PCIncorrect]

What is your industry and what impact do you believe the influx of H1B workers have on it? Please expand.

I work in the telecommunications industry doing application programmming, on the IT side of things (billing, customers orders, etc).

Corporations use H1B workers and off-shore contracting to drive U.S. contracting wages down. While in the short run, it may seem cheap (you can make anything look good on paper), in the long run, code is having to be re-written several times over because of lack of communication/understanding of the way business is done in the U.S. Also, communication misunderstandings within the English language that occur between U.S. and foreign counter-parts. The amazing part that most people dont realize is the person or persons making the decisions to use off-shore/H1B workers are those Executives that come from the same countries. They make slide presentations that makes a camel salesman look-good while, in reality the true cost of using foreign programmers is usually as high or higher than using U.S. programmers. Low-level management sees the cost and its affect, but the message going up-hill is always stifled. Granted the programming market is a small percentage of the whole U.S. based employment market, but the affect is still rather large.