Obama Administration proposes massive increase in H-1B visas

IFPTE says that expansion will lead to the loss of, "hundreds of thousands" of jobs

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a proposed rule yesterday that calls for a massive expansion of the H-1B high tech guest worker program. The Obama Administration rule would grant spouses of the hundreds of thousands of H-1B guest workers employment authorization, thereby leading to an additional loss of hundreds of thousands of high-tech jobs for American workers. This expansion is also included in the Senate passed immigration reform bill (S. 744) and nearly identical, and yet to be considered, House bill (HR 15).



The International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers (IFPTE), representing tens of thousands of STEM workers, issued the following responses to yesterday’s announcement:



IFPTE President, Gregory Junemann:



“The Administration’s proposal not only ignores the fact that there are more than enough home grown STEM workers to perform these jobs, but it is also foolhardy on two accounts. First, it brings us one step closer to enacting the massive expansion of a drastically flawed guest worker program that is both abusive to foreign guest workers who are essentially wedded to one employer who pays them a fraction of the labor market wage, as well as to American workers who are displaced by visa recipients. Second, because the President has already signaled his openness to move forward on immigration reform through the House Republican supported piecemeal approach, this action only heightens the possibility that this abusive, business supported visa program could ultimately be approved while a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented workers gets left behind. Sadly, the administration’s embrace of unilaterally expanding the H-1B program through rule making takes us one step closer to this possibility.”



SPEEA, IFPTE Local 2001 Labor Representative, Stan Sorscher:



“The H-1B visa was designed as a non-immigrant temporary work visa. Expanding H-1B visas to spouses represents a commitment well beyond temporary non-immigrant work. The appropriate place for working spouses is in a path to citizenship with full worker protections for the immigrant worker and spouse.”



While remaining in support of a reasonable path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented workers living and working in the United States, IFPTE remains opposed to both S. 744 and HR 15 because both bills call for expanding, and not reforming, the H-1B visa program.

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