Som Mittal, chief of India’s software association Nasscom, has lost the battle to prevent the Obama administration from going ahead with a Border Security bill funded by imposing higher fees on H1B Visas used by Indian IT companies.

U.S. President Obama signed the $600 million bill Friday.

The bill is expected to fund an additional 1,000 border security agents on our Southern border besides supporting the hiring of more Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

Won’t Help
We’re not convinced that throwing more money at our southern border with Mexico will stem the tide of illegal immigrants, which currently is down to a trickle because of the recession in the U.S.

As long as Mexico remains an impoverished, backward country with limited opportunities for its citizens they will be tempted to make the journey north regardless of the risks.

Still, we support the imposition of higher fees on these Coolie Visas a.k.a. H1B Visas that have contributed in no small measure to the devastation of U.S. programmers.

Maybe, we also ought to seriously think of levying additional fees on Indian IT companies based on their revenues and the number of H1B/L1 Visas they hold.

Som Mittal Fails
Lacking the clout on Capitol Hill, Mittal failed to make an effective case to prevent the surcharge on H1B Visas, which is expected to hit Indian IT firms like Wipro (Mittal’s ex-employer), Infosys, TCS et al.

Having totally failed to prevent the bill from passing, Mittal is now left to mouth meaningless platitudes like:

It is also unfortunate – but likely – that the new law will impact the level of cooperation between India and the U.S., both with respect to our government-to-government and business-to-business relationships.

Ha ha ha.

Does anybody even believe the kind of drivel Mittal is spewing regarding the bill’s so-called impact on government-to-government and business-to-business relationships.

Or is Mittal trying to hold on to his job. 😉

  H1B, Nasscom, Som Mittal