Justice Department warns companies against using the programme to displace American workers

The Donald Trump administration will enforce the laws related to the H-1B visa programme that went unenforced until now, the White House said on Monday, even as the Justice Department warned companies against using the programme to displace American workers.

“The President has spoken about the H-1B visa programme in the past. ..the Trump administration will be enforcing laws protecting American workers from discriminatory hiring practices,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said.

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As this year’s application process for H-1B visas began on Monday, the U.S Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced a slew of measures to crack down on companies that might be misusing the programme, including more stringent checks at sites where H-1B workers are employed.

“The H-1B visa programme should help U.S. companies recruit highly-skilled foreign nationals when there is a shortage of qualified workers in the country. Yet, too many American workers who are as qualified, willing, and deserving to work in these fields have been ignored or unfairly disadvantaged. Protecting American workers by combating fraud in our employment-based immigration programmes is a priority for USCIS,” the agency said in a statement announcing site visits across the country.

The USCIS, responsible for selecting 85,000 H-IB beneficiaries, also clarified, purportedly for administrative reasons, that computer programmers with two-year degrees do not qualify as speciality occupation as defined by the programme. “..the fact that a person may be employed as a computer programmer and may use information technology skills and knowledge to help an enterprise achieve its goals in the course of his or her job is not sufficient to establish the position as a speciality occupation. … Instead, a petitioner must provide other evidence to establish that the particular position is one in a speciality occupation as defined,” it said.

In a third statement from the administration on Monday, the Justice Department said it would not tolerate employers misusing the H-1B visa process to discriminate against U.S. workers. Acting Assistant Attorney General Tom Wheeler of the Civil Rights Division said in the statement: “U.S. workers should not be placed in a disfavoured status, and the department is wholeheartedly committed to investigating and vigorously prosecuting these claims.”

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The USCIS inspections will specifically target cases where it cannot validate the employer’s basic business information through commercially available data, employers who have a high ratio of H-1B workers as compared to U.S. workers and employers petitioning for H-1B workers who work at another company or organisation’s location. The last category comprises body shops that contract workers for big IT firms.

“Targeted site visits will allow USCIS to focus resources where fraud and abuse of the H-1B programme may be more likely to occur, and determine whether H-1B dependent employers are evading their obligation to make a good faith effort to recruit U.S. workers. USCIS will continue random and unannounced visits nationwide,” the USCIS statement said. “These site visits are not meant to target non-immigrant employees for any kind of criminal or administrative action but rather to identify employers who are abusing the system,” the agency said.

The agency has also set up an anonymous email facility for individual submit tips about suspected violations and potential fraud or abuse of the H-1B programme.