General Discussion

In 1993, 60 Minutes reported on computer companies that were firing Americans in order to bring in foreigners making a substantially lower salary. They were doing so, in part, because of the H-1B visa, which correspondent Lesley Stahl described then as "a huge loophole in the immigration law."

While (Bruce) Morrison created the program three years earlier to attract exceptional talent, former U.S. Department of Labor top immigration official Demetrious Papademetriou told Stahl that imported programmers using the H-1B visa didn't fit that description.

"These are basically run-of-the-mill people with a degree and some skills, and it seems to me that it is important that we distinguish between people who are truly skilled—who have unique, specialized skills—and people who simply provide labor," Papademetriou told Stahl.

While the law required that foreign workers be paid the prevailing wage—what an American would make for the same job—Stahl reported it was often completely ignored and never enforced.