Limit on Work Visas Could Hurt Leagues: Phil at Beyond the Score has a link to an interesting article concerning visas for foreign-born workers. Apparently, the quota for work visas (66,000) for the entire year of 2004 was reached on March 9, meaning that no visas can be issued to baseball players or anyone else. This has the potential to severely harm baseball, whose June draft often includes numerous foreign-born players.



But the larger problem seems to be on the quota. How can a number be set so low that it is exceeded three months into the year? And, if needs to be set low, should not the authorities be more selective in granting approvals to ensure that qualified workers for the last nine months of the year are turned away? This "first-come, first-serve" basis will only encourage companies to bring workers into the country quickly, no matter their qualifications, for fear that the limit will be reached and the employer will be out of luck. These unqualified workers are more likely to be let go and less likely to be re-hired, resulting in the exact problem this legislation hopes to prevent: a high number of unemployed aliens draining government resources.

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