Within the first main home authorized problem to the H-1B visa crackdown, a bunch of unions, schooling professionals and non secular our bodies sued the Trump administration.
In a lawsuit filed within the Northern District of California, the plaintiffs argued that Trump’s proclamation, signed on September 19, was riddled with “a number of errors” and “ignores the advantages of the H-1B visa program to the American economic system.”
The case additionally highlighted that the $100,000 visa software price is “unprecedented, unjustified and illegal.”
“The Proclamation’s imposition of a draconian price is unprecedented. No President has, with out Congressional authorization and by fiat, imposed a market-wide penalty for purported misuse of a program—disregarding and overriding an current, advanced statutory scheme—on employers looking for to rent staff beneath a visa program Congress created particularly for that goal,” it mentioned.
The criticism mentioned that “the President has no authority to unilaterally alter the great statutory scheme created by Congress” and that the choice of exceptions “opens the door to selective enforcement and corruption.”
The plaintiff consists of many immigration and advocacy teams, together with the Justice Motion Middle, South Asian American Justice Collaborative, and Democracy Ahead Basis, however no main tech firm.
Whereas signing the proclamation, Trump had mentioned the “incentive is to rent American staff.”
“We want staff. We want nice staff, and this gorgeous a lot ensures that,” Trump added.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had additionally defended the transfer, saying the coverage would discourage firms from hiring international staff.
“So, the entire concept is, no extra will these large tech firms or different large firms practice international staff. They must pay the federal government $100,000, then they must pay the worker. So, it is simply not financial. You are going to practice any person. You are going to practice one of many latest graduates from one of many nice universities throughout our land, practice Individuals. Cease bringing in folks to take our jobs. That is the coverage right here. $100,000 a yr for H-1B visas,” he defined.
The proclamation precipitated immense confusion because it appeared to recommend that it could influence the present H-1B visa holders, who could face hurdles in returning to the US.
The White Home issued a clarification to IANS on September 20, saying that this can be a “one-time price” that applies solely to new visas and never renewals or present visa holders.
Days later, the US Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) additionally proposed to “amend its laws” governing the H-1B visa course of.
The DHS plan sought to scrap the present lottery system and implement a weighted choice course of that it says would favour the allocation of H-1B visas to higher-skilled staff.
India-born staff acquired over 70 per cent of the overall permitted H1-B visas in 2024, primarily as a consequence of an enormous backlog in approvals and a excessive variety of expert immigrants from India.
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