U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers file lawsuit
By Velvet Spicer
BridgeTower Media Newswires
The Trump Administration has again changed rules making H-1B visas harder to obtain, prompting pushback from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and at least a dozen other parties, including the University of Rochester.
On Oct. 19, the Chamber, NAM and others filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of California against recent regulations that they say will undermine high skilled immigration into the U.S.
“The rules being implemented by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor undermine high-skilled immigration in the U.S. and a company’s ability to retain and recruit the very best talent,” said U.S. Chamber CEO Thomas Donohue in a statement. “If these rules are allowed to stand, they will devastate companies across various industries. The Chamber is proud to join our partners in fighting against these measures that will discourage investment, diminish economic growth, and impede job creation in the U.S.”
In July, the Chamber led a coalition of organizations in a lawsuit challenging federal restrictions on businesses' ability to meet their workforce needs through lawful immigration. Donohue penned an op-ed in the New York Times outlining the suit and why the policies are bad for business.
“Over the past few weeks, the Trump administration has decided to close the door to engineers, executives, information technology experts, doctors, nurses and others who come to the United States on work visas. It has attempted to ban international students from attending American colleges and universities that hold classes virtually in the fall. And it has shown an unwavering commitment to canceling the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA,” the op-ed read, in part.
Donohue called the regulations “the most restrictionist immigration policies in nearly a century.”
The latest lawsuit contends that the DHS Rule, issued Oct. 8, “Strengthening the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Classification Program,” issues sweeping changes to H-1B eligibility. It redefines what qualifies as a “specialty occupation,” restricting the category of individuals who will qualify. The DHS Rule also targets H-1B workers employed at third-party job sites by restricting the maximum validity period of their visa status for only one year, as compared to three for other H-1B workers.
The filing also contends that the DOL Rule, “Strengthening Wage Protections for the Temporary and Permanent Employment of Certain Aliens in the United States,” is a “poison pill that would destroy the whole H-1B system.” The DOL Rule raises the minimum wages employers must pay to H-1B workers to artificially high levels — wages that vastly exceed what comparable domestic workers are paid.
For some 18,000 combinations of occupations and geographic locations, DOL has set the prevailing wage rate at $100 an hour, or $208,000 a year. This includes, for example, a software developer in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area. While a private wage survey from Willis Towers Watson shows that an entry level employee in this field and location earns approximately
$70,600 per year, DOL would raise that amount by $137,400.
“We need high-skilled innovators now more than ever, and the administration’s attempt to rush these rules forward without properly considering their impact on thousands of people on the front lines of developing vaccines and treatments and making critical supplies, as well as saving lives in our hospitals, could have devastating consequences at a critical moment in our history,” said NAM Senior Vice President and General Counsel Linda Kelly. “Rewriting laws through a dark-of-night-style rulemaking leads to dangerous policy outcomes, and this pair of interim final rules is an illegal attempt to dismantle legal immigration by rendering the H-1B visa program unworkable for hundreds of thousands of American-based workers who are essential to the recovery and renewal of our industry and our economy.”
According to an Oct. 20 statement from UR officials, the DHS Rule makes far-reaching changes to H-1B eligibility by tightening the category of individuals who will qualify based on how an individual’s area of study aligns with their future position. The university and other plaintiffs believe the DOL Rule is designed to, in effect, “abolish the entire H-1B system by raising the minimum wages employers must pay these visa holders to artificially high levels — wages that vastly exceed what comparable domestic workers are paid,” UR officials said.
The rules also apply to individuals who currently hold H-1B visas looking to renew their status. Potentially tens of thousands of H-1B highly skilled workers would be ineligible to renew their visas and would be forced to leave the U.S.
“H-1B visas allow some of the world’s most talented faculty, postdoctoral associates and research scientists the opportunity to come to Rochester and other research universities to teach, conduct critical research and practice medicine,” UR officials said. “The H-1B visa has traditionally been issued to highly skilled workers with expertise in one or more specialty fields — often in STEM fields — who want to come to the U.S. to work temporarily. Narrowing eligibility for H-1B skilled employment visas can quickly cause an enormous loss of productivity, creativity and innovation at research universities across the U.S.”
