Bill Gates and other ambassadors of the Silicon West travel increasingly to Washington, D.C., to persuade legislators the United States needs to allow more high-skilled temporary workers into the country. Industry contends that the U.S. is not breeding scientists and engineers as quickly as Asian and European competitors.

The IEEE is trying to hit the CEOs back, highlighting a shadowy side-benefit to importing technology workers: They receive less pay than their U.S. counterparts. Labor Department data shows that skilled workers who have entered the U.S. on H1B visas earn up to 23 percent less than their American peers. Labor law mandates that H1B workers receive the "prevailing wage," an ill-defined term that allows some employers to pay immigrants less than market salaries--thereby driving down the earning potential of U.S. technology workers.

At the end of August, the Bush administration announced a proposal to raise the annual quota of H1Bs to 80,000 a year from India, a 25 percent increase.