The US Division of Justice (DoJ) has intensified its scrutiny of hiring practices below the H-1B visa program, calling on staff and employers to report cases the place US residents are unfairly ignored in favour of international visa holders.
Harmeet Dhillon, the India-born Assistant Lawyer Normal of Civil Rights on the DoJ, is main the initiative. Dhillon was hand-picked by US President Donald Trump for the job shortly after he gained the election in December final 12 months.
On Thursday, Dhillon introduced that the division has opened “a number of” investigations and brought motion in opposition to “some” employers already. “Ship us your leads,” she urged People to succeed in out on the DoJ hotline.
The H-1B program, capped at 85,000 new visas yearly, permits US firms to rent expert international staff in fields like know-how and engineering. Nevertheless, critics, together with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, have argued it allows outsourcing companies to depress wages and displace American expertise.
In an interview with Fox Information on Tuesday, Lutnick termed the present H1B visa system “a rip-off” and referred to as upon US companies to prioritise hiring of “American staff.”
Lutnick additionally introduced that he’s “concerned in altering” it. DeSantis, too, raised comparable considerations, calling the programme a “cottage business.”
The Division of Homeland Safety has additionally proposed modifications to the present system by eliminating the lottery setup with a “weighted choice course of.”
Indian staff account for over 70 per cent of the H-1 visa approvals every year, primarily resulting from an enormous backlog in approvals and a excessive variety of expert immigrants from the nation.
On Wednesday, in a associated growth, the Trump administration additionally unveiled new plans to limit visas for worldwide college students by imposing a four-year cap.
India is the most important supply of worldwide college students in america, with over 330,000 arriving in 2024, adopted by China.
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