A U.S. judge on Tuesday rejected two rules proposed by the Trump administration to reduce the eligibility of H-1B visa applicants and increase their salaries in an effort to make it more difficult for companies, primarily in IT, to use this short-term employment program to hire foreign workers instead of local Americans.
US District Judge Jeffrey S. White of the Northern District of California ruled that the changes were made quickly and did not meet standard transparency obligations: providing sufficient notice and time for public comment.
The administration had tried to rush it in October arguing the urgency, as a “good cause exception”, in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The court cannot tolerate, reluctantly or otherwise, the reliance of defendants in the Covid-19 pandemic to invoke the good cause exception,” White wrote. “The impact of the pandemic on the economy is the only reason DHS offered itself as good cause, and defendants do not dispute that the lack of notification and comment was detrimental.”
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The United States issues 85,000 new H-1B visas each year. More than 70% of them go to Indian professionals hired by US companies like Facebook, Google and Microsoft, and Indian IT services companies like TCS, Wipro and Infosys.
Many of them tend to stay and graduate to get permanent residence, or green cards, and eventually citizenship, as Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, who came to the United States to study on an F-1 visa, was hired by McKinsey in H-1B and went on to become a U.S. citizen through the mandatory Green Card.
“This ruling has many companies from various industries breathing a great sigh of relief today,” Jon Baselice, director of immigration policy for the US Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement. “Both of these rules had the potential to be incredibly disruptive to the operations of many companies.”
Among those who breathe easier will be employees at Nasscom, which represents Indian IT companies, some of which have built substantial operations in the United States using H-1B visas to bring in workers from India.
“These regulations appear to be based on misinformation about the program and are counterproductive to its very goal of saving the American economy and jobs,” he had said when the administration announced the new rules in October.
In October, the administration announced two rules. One of them went into effect immediately: It increased H-1B wages to match those of American workers with similar qualifications, which was intended to deny companies hiring foreign workers just because they were cheaper.
The second rule was to take effect after a few days. It sought to reduce eligibility for H-1B applicants. A basic bachelor’s degree in anything would not be enough. For example, a foreigner hired for a job in computer engineering had to be a computer engineer.
The Trump administration has had the H-1B program in its sights since the president’s first year in office, when it announced its “Buy American, Hire American” policies.
Critics of the program that allows two tranches of three-year work permits to major H-1B visa holders and work authorization for spouses have argued that companies have used it to replace American workers with salaried foreigners. Lower.
The Trump administration agreed. While it tried to change the system gradually, it accelerated them and with more far-reaching changes after Covid-19 struck earlier this year, leading to widespread job losses.
Trump suspended the program and immigration to ensure that Americans have the first chance that jobs are available as the economy recovers.
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