Posted on 10/06/2020 10:47:14 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
The Trump administration is set to publish additional immigration reforms on Tuesday aimed at making it more difficult for skilled foreign workers to acquire visas.
The changes are the latest effort by the Trump administration in recent months to crack down on the use of visas as part of its broader attempt to limit the flow of foreign workers.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is expected to publish regulations targeting H-1B visas that are granted to skilled workers and are common in the tech industry. Recipients can typically stay in the United States for multiple years.
The rules, which will go into effect immediately, would heighten requirements for businesses who hire foreign workers on H-1B visas, according to details reviewed by The Hill. The changes may be challenged in court.
DHS will finalize rules that redefine "specialty occupations," limit the validity of an H-1B visa to one year for a worker placed at a third-party worksite, and increase enforcement tools to police companies that do not abide by H-1B rules or cooperate with site visits.
At the same time, a new Department of Labor rule is slated to go into effect requiring employers to increase what they pay H-1B recipients in an effort to discourage companies from undercutting American workers.
Immigration hawks hailed the move as overdue.
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Tell me this isn’t satire.
Nice. Squeezing this stuff in before the election. At any other time, the opposition party would make a big hullabaloo.
At present, they have plenty of other things that require more stridency.
SHOW ME RESULTS!!! Termined H1B workers, hired American workers. Sick of talk—Trump says one thing, adminstration does another.
I mean, it's not like we don't have umpteen thousand colleges and universities, each producing 30+ Technology graduates a year.
Agreed. The last H-1B ruling may as well not have happened, for what little good it was going to do.
I agree with you on this. It weakens our nation while strengthening others.
How about just enforcing the current rules like after their employment they have to go home? Indians account for a lot of illegal aliens in the US.
How about companies that fire Americans so they can hire foreigners get prosecuted??
The only real change that needs to happen is to require companies to pay H-1b workers 25% more than the prevailing wage.
If a worker has a skill set that cannot be filled by an American, they should be happy to pay a premium wage for premium skills.
If they really don’t need those premium skills, they should be willing to hire a hard working American to do the work they actually need done, or do without.
Problems with these visa programs will persist until they are terminated. There are too many loopholes and exceptions, and too many complicit bureaucrats.
H1B was intended for something else and was twisted into a tool for the immigration lobby. Kill it.
This is the administration talking - although whether lower levels will walk that talk remains to be seen. I'd like to see our President take a firmer hand here; but even the uncertainty of possible restrictions has IIRC led to some consultancies hiring more Americans.
I am not seeing this. Most IT HR are run and staffed by Indians and that is all they are hiring. From my direct experience and talking to other experienced IT workers, we are giving lip service at best, not getting interviews, not getting hired.
It's a baby step: the most President Trump could get through the swamp without devastating pushback right before an election.
The regulations will be posted as soon as October 6 and will go into effect by October 8.
For example, officials said, the Labor Department will require H-1B workers to be paid at least 45 percent of the prevailing wage levels, sharply up from the 17 percent level in current rules.
The rule will also target the H-1B staffing industry, for example, by setting a one-year term for H-1Bs imported by staffing companies. “The vast majority will be rejected,” predicted one official.
FAIR said the rules being posted by the Departments of Labor and Homeland Security include:
A redefinition of “specialty occupation” that will ensure that H-1B workers who are admitted possess unique skills and qualifications that are not readily replicated by American workers.
Dramatically curtail the “body shop” business model under which foreign labor contractors snap up tens of thousands of H-1B visas and then subcontract those workers to American employers. Under the new rules, U.S. employers will have to petition for workers directly and demonstrate that there is an actual job that requires a uniquely qualified foreign worker.
Enhancing scrutiny of companies employing H-1B workers to ensure that guest workers are filling the roles for which they were petitioned. In addition, employers found to be abusing the program could be fined or barred from participation.
Implement needed increases to the “prevailing wage” levels, making it more difficult for companies to undercut American workers.
Another step in the right direction. They haven’t done a sweeping overhaul of H1b’s to require employers to pay them MORE for doing the same job as I would like to see....but they have consistently squeezed H1b’s in a variety of ways. This is great for American workers.
Makes complete sense, if not 25%, at least 10% higher.
WE.SHOULD.NOT.IMPORT.ONE.MORE.PERSON.
If we had a decent educational system in this country, we would not need to import better educated foreigners.
“The changes are the latest effort by the Trump administration in recent months to crack down on the use of visas as part of its broader attempt to limit the flow of foreign workers.”
Or, to put it into a pro-American perspective:
“The changes are the latest effort by the Trump administration in recent months to crack down on the misuse of visas as part of its broader attempt to keep American citizens from being fired by Disney, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Amazon, et al. and replaced with foreign workers willing to work at cut-rate wages.”
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