High-skilled Americans

USCIS has reportedly reneged on a proposed “Buy American, Hire American” regulation that would have prevented H-1B visa extensions beyond the six-year limit and likely stopped more than 100,000 foreign workers with pending green card applications from keeping their H-1B visas beyond the allowed two three-year terms, creating job opportunities for higher-skilled Americans.

Sources have said that the Trump administration is planning to end the Obama-era rule that allowed spouses of H-1B foreign workers to receive a work permit. Under this new rule 41,526 people received work permits from Oct. 2015-Sept. 2016.

In 2015 Pres. Obama created a work permit for certain H-4 visa holders, even though under this visa they were not allowed to hold a job or be issued a Social Security number.

According to a recent DHS report the USCIS has approved 2,634,328 H-1B applications from FY07- June 30th, 2017. The report shows that over 100,000 foreign workers are imported to the U.S. through this program every year to compete with American workers.

Acting USCIS Director James McCament responded to a letter by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) stating that the agency has multiple investigations, “regarding the possible misuse of the H-1B program” by employers such as Disney, Northeast Utilities (Eversource Energy), and the University of California San Francisco. All three of these companies were highlighted in the 60 Minutes investigation on how American workers are being replaced by foreign H-1B workers.

A recent report by the Pew Research Center shows that more foreign students are using the Optional Practical Training (OPT) visa program to gain employment and stay in the U.S. until they can receive an H-1B visa. This prevents many American graduates, who attended the same colleges and universities, from being hired in those fields.

New Zealand announced today that they have made changes to their skilled foreign worker visa program that requires immigrants to meet certain income levels to be eligible for the visa. In order to qualify as a skilled immigrant they must get a job in which they earn at least the median income, to qualify as higher skilled the immigrant will need to earn at least 150% of the median income.

Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced today that Australia will stop the temporary 457 visa program that allows foreigners to live and work in the country for up to four years. The visa program has been criticized for allowing businesses to use the program to replace Australian workers with cheaper foreign labor.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) department issued a memorandum over the weekend that requires companies to prove that the computer programming job they are filling with a H-1B foreign worker meets the advanced knowledge and experience qualifications of the H-1B visa program. This will provide more scrutiny to computer programmer applications to ensure they are not being hired to do simple jobs that Americans could do.

60 Minutes launched an investigative report on how some U.S. companies are using the H-1B visa to bring in cheaper foreign labor and replace American workers. They interviewed several U.S. workers who not only lost their jobs but were forced to train their replacements.

The AFL-CIO endorsed the Gang of 8's massive expansion of legal immigration in 2013, but the union's President Richard Trumka was pleased with Pres. Trump's message on immigration during his speech before a joint session of Congress.

In a New York Times op-ed entitled “Fix Immigration. It’s What Voters Want” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., argues President-elect Trump “has a clear mandate not only to stop illegal immigration, but also to finally cut the generation-long influx of low-skilled immigrants that undermines American workers.” He says the nation needs an immigration policy that focuses less on powerful special interests and more on everyone else.

Breitbart’s Neil Munro reports a last-minute Obama Administration regulation will create more foreign job competition for American workers specializing in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. It would: automatically extend the work permits of H-1B guest workers while they seek permanent employment-based green cards; increase their job portability; and create a new method for non-profits to hire H-1B workers by partnering with universities. And for foreign students who work under the Optional Training Program (OPT), the regulation would extend the length of their work permits so they can seek a H-1B slot.

A federal judge dismissed two lawsuits brought by technology workers who alleged that Walt Disney Company conspired with outsourcing companies when they forced the workers to train their H-1B replacements before termination. The suits alleged the defendants violated federal racketeering statutes but Florida Judge Gregory Presnell found the plaintiffs’ evidence was insufficient to sustain their claims.

McDonalds has joined the growing national trend of outsourcing American jobs to cheaper, foreign workers. The McDonalds in Ohio fired 70 American accountants and replaced them foreign, H-1B workers.

Cisco Systems, Inc., a giant tech company, plans on laying off 5,500 employees or about 7% of its global workforce starting in the next few weeks. The Cisco company has been a champion for increasing H-1B visas and is currently the 28th biggest user of H-1Bs in the U.S.

During a call-in press conference on Wednesday, Tom Nassif, President and CEO of the Western Growers Association (WGA), made a push for amnesty to bring in more foreign workers in order to drive down rising wages. He alleged that there is a labor shortage that is causing competition among businesses and that “wages are going up dramatically”.

India says it will contest a bill to reform the H-1B and L-1 visa programs, if passed, saying it would violate international trade agreements. Last week, Reps. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-N.J.) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) introduced the H-B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2016 that would prevent companies from misusing these visas to replace American workers.

A new investigative report showed that Tesla Motors’ contract company, Eisenmann, paid a smaller Slovenian company, Vuzem, to hire foreign workers through the B-1 visa program. The companies misrepresented the foreign workers in order to obtain the visas so they could import cheaper, foreign labor instead of hiring American workers.

Ohio companies are following the national trend of using H-1B visas to replace American workers with cheaper, foreign labor, more than one third of the H-1B visa applications for the state of Ohio were for workers at the lowest wage level, similar to an internship.

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest held a hearing yesterday to discuss the impact that high immigration levels have on U.S. workers. The hearing, led by Chairman Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), discussed how high levels of immigration decrease wages and diminish job opportunities for American workers.

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) introduced the ICE Agent Support Act (H.R. 4597) and the American Jobs First Act (H.R. 4598) this week and both are identical to the bills introduced by Sen. Sessions (R-Ala.) and Cruz (R-Texas) in the Senate earlier this month.