H-1B visa: Three Republicans will bring legislation to ‘woo cheap foreign labor’ in Congress

Three Republican American lawmakers have introduced a law in Congress to prevent US employers from hiring H-1B workers, mostly high-skilled Indian IT professionals, if they have recently, or from their local If there is a plan to fire activists, then demand to end it “lure of cheap foreign labor”.

Introduced to the House of Representatives by Republican congressmen Mo Brooks, Matt Getz and Lance Gooden, the American Jobs First Act proposes to overhaul the H-1B visa program by making necessary changes to the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The H-1B visa, the most sought after among Indian IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visa, which allows US companies to employ foreign businesses in specialized occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.

Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees every year from countries like India and China.

According to its text released on 3 March, a foreign guest worker cannot be admitted or provided as an H-1B nonimmigrant in an occupational classification unless the petitioning employer has filed an application with the Secretary of Labor Is telling the employer. H-1B An annual salary for a non-immigrant that exceeds the annual salary paid to a US citizen or lawful permanent resident employee who did the same or similar work during the two years preceding the filing of such application by the petitioning employer Was Or $ 110.

The petitioner employer is also required to apply with the Secretary of Labor, stating that the employer will not require an H-1B nonimmigrant, which the petitioner may require, before the H-1B non-consent is agreed with the employer. A penalty will have to be paid for imposing a fine on employment. Immigrant and petitioner employer.

The bill referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and, among other things, the Committee on Education and Labor, suspends the F-1 Optional Practical Training (OPT) program, which extends expandable work permits and jobs to all foreign students in the US. Market competition among graduates.

This ends the diversity visa lottery program, which lawmakers allegedly failed to serve American interests by issuing 50,000 green cards to foreigners around the world, regardless of their qualifications. Given that Democrats have a majority in the House of Representatives, there is little chance of the bill being passed.

“My American Jobs First Act will bring much needed reform and monitoring to the H-1B visa program to ensure that American workers are no longer harmed in their own country. Congressman Brooks said, “For cheap foreign labor to disappear, employers would have to pay a minimum of $ 110,000 to any H-1B workers in the bill.”

“And to prevent American worker replacements, my bill would require H-1B labor-seeking companies not to expel any American workers for at least two years without reason, and after two years Commit no workers to do the job without any reason, ”Shri. . Brooks said.

Measures to improve the Commonsense H-1B, along with the elimination of improper OPT and diversity visa lottery programs, all serve to promote American interests when it comes to immigration, he said.

Meanwhile, on March 3, a bipartisan group of US senators urged the Biden administration to implement H-1B visa program reforms issued by the previous Trump administration in January, under which visas were to be issued on wage criteria , Not many computerized draws.

In a notification on 8 January, the Trump administration sought to issue H-1B visas to employers with the highest salaries before being allocated to other petitioners.

Five weeks later, the Biden administration announced a delay in the effective date of the H-1B selection rule from March 9 to December 31, 2021. The Department of Homeland Security also announced a return to the lottery system.

Senate Judiciary Committee chairman and ranking member of Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, ranking member of Senate Judiciary Committee, in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, said companies will continue the lottery system and thousands of new H-1Bs. -1 will protect it. Visa for 2022 Since the H-1B filing season begins in a few weeks.

“Implementing the proper allocation of visas as an H-1B selection rule is a meaningful step towards reform to protect American workers. We urge you to implement this rule at the earliest, ”the senators said.

According to a May 4, 2020 analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, the majority of H-1B employers use the visa program to pay migrant workers bottom-market wages, and half of the top 30 H-1B employers outsourcing Businesses use the model, he said.

“Employers offering higher wages to international graduates of American universities are often forced out of the H-1B lottery, while thousands of new H-1B visas are issued each year to outsourcing companies that offer below-market wages. Offer and seek American jobs. ” wrote.

In January, the then US President Donald Trump extended the ban on the issuance of new H-1B visas to 31 March, arguing that the country had a very high unemployment rate and that the US could not afford more foreign workers is.

Indian IT professionals are the worst victims of the current immigration system which imposes seven per cent of the quota per country on the allocation of reputed green cards or permanent legal residency.