{"id":17915,"date":"2018-11-28T09:45:35","date_gmt":"2018-11-28T14:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=17915"},"modified":"2018-12-28T09:27:58","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T14:27:58","slug":"congress-courts-could-clash-over-tech-visas-i-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2018\/11\/28\/congress-courts-could-clash-over-tech-visas-i-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress, Courts Could Clash Over Tech Visas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite a wave of worker lawsuits \u2013 or perhaps because of them \u2013 a bipartisan push is on in Congress to lift the national caps on H-1B work visas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

HR 392<\/a>, which would award still more of \u201ctech visas\u201d to South Asian countries, was attached to the Homeland Security funding bill that passed out of committee. The dubiously titled \u201cFairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act\u201d is one of the House\u2019s most co-sponsored bills, with 329 Republican and Democratic lawmakers signing on.<\/p>\n

Not coincidentally, the measure is supported by a long line of deep-pocketed, heavy-hitting lobbyists<\/a> representing technology companies and overseas labor brokers.<\/p>\n

While revealing a not-so-salutary side of bipartisanship, HR 392 goes to great lengths to benefit foreign workers \u2013 particularly those from India<\/a> \u2013 over U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n

Seven class-action lawsuits<\/a> pending in U.S. courts accuse the top two H-1B brokers, both founded by Indian businessmen, of favoring tech workers from South Asia.<\/p>\n

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. led the pack with 28,908 approved H-1B petitions last year. Tata Consultancy Services followed with 14,697. Tata recruited about 3,000 U.S. workers that year.<\/p>\n

Daniel Kotchen, a partner with Kotchen & Low in Washington, D.C., said Tata \u201chas a corporate preference to predominantly staff U.S. positions with South Asians, including visa holders from India.\u201d Employees who aren\u2019t South Asian aren\u2019t given work to do and are fired at \u201cstrikingly disproportionate rates,\u201d said the attorney who represents plaintiffs in the class-action cases.<\/p>\n

Another lawsuit in California<\/a> alleges that Infosys, another outsourcing giant, conspired with Apple to evade visa laws through the H-1B program.<\/p>\n

Now comes HR 392, which would eliminate existing national caps and allow the H-1B \u201cbody shops\u201d to dive even deeper into the South Asian labor pool.<\/p>\n

\u201cFAIR has long opposed lifting the per-country caps,\u201d said government relations director RJ Hauman. \u201cWithout those caps in place, India will consume the lion\u2019s share of the permanent skilled visas, creating a discriminatory system that favors a single foreign nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s worse, he adds, \u201cHR 392 shreds any pretense that H-1B is anything but a track for intending immigrants \u2013 not short-term foreign labor. No one promised [these Indian]temporary guest workers that they would ever have the chance to immigrate permanently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the lame duck House appears bent on compounding the abuse and neglect of U.S. workers \u2013 whatever the courts decide.