WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a
member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chairman
of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced bipartisan legislation to reform
and close loopholes in the H-1B and L-1 visa programs. The
H-1B and L-1 Visa
Reform Act will reduce fraud and abuse in our immigration system, provide
protections for American workers and visa holders and require greater
transparency in the recruitment of foreign workers. The bill introduction comes
during H-1B filing season, with tech companies applying for thousands of new
H-1B visas even though the tech industry has recently laid off thousands of
American and immigrant workers. Durbin and Grassley first introduced the
legislation in
2007 and have been long-time advocates
for H-1B and L-1 visa reform.
“The H-1B
and L-1 visa programs were established to fill in gaps in America’s
high-skilled workforce, not supplant it. Unfortunately, some companies have
exploited these programs to replace American workers with cheaper labor, which
ultimately harms American workers and foreign labor alike. Our bill puts
American workers first and ensures that the programs promote fairness for all
workers,” Grassley said.
“For years,
outsourcing companies have used legal loopholes to displace qualified American
workers and replace them with foreign workers who are paid subpar wages and put
in exploitative working conditions,” Durbin said. “These actions hurt
all workers and make our country less attractive to the world’s top talent. Our
legislation would fix these broken programs, protect workers, and put an end to
these abuses.”
The H-1B and
L-1 visa programs are intended to create a pathway for U.S. companies to
recruit highly skilled noncitizens when there is a shortage of qualified
workers in the country. Unfortunately, these programs are being abused by employers
who displace U.S. workers and subject foreign workers to artificially depressed
wages and poor working conditions. Foreign workers in H-1B and L-1 status are
vulnerable to abuse because they are tied to a single employer to maintain
their temporary immigration status. These vulnerabilities are exacerbated for
those stuck in the green card backlog, who must maintain their temporary status
while they wait for a green card to become available.
The H-1B
and L-1 Visa Reform Act would stop these abuses by closing loopholes in
these programs. The bill would crack down on outsourcing companies that import
large numbers of H-1B and L-1 workers to displace American workers and
facilitate the outsourcing of American jobs. It would also give the U.S.
Department of Labor (DOL) new authorities and responsibilities to ensure that
program requirements are enforced.
Specifically,
this bipartisan bill would:
- Place new wage, recruitment, and
attestation requirements on employers seeking to hire L-1 and H-1B workers;
- Require employers seeking to hire
H-1B employees to post those jobs on a searchable DOL website, a resource for
both U.S. workers and laid-off H-1B nonimmigrants;
- Give DOL authority to place a fee on
labor condition applications and use those fees to hire an additional 200 DOL
employees;
- Make reforms to the H-1B program,
including by prioritizing H-1B visa issuance for workers with higher levels of
education in STEM and amending the definition of a “specialty occupation” to
require a bachelor’s degree or higher;
- Make reforms to the L-1 nonimmigrant
program, including new time limits and evidentiary requirements for petitions
from a “new office” and mandating cooperation from the Department of State in
verifying foreign affiliates; and,
- Increase penalties for wage
violations, including fines or debarment of employers.
Along with Grassley and Durbin, the
legislation is also cosponsored by Sens. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Bernie
Sanders (I-Vt.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
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