Legislation Enhances Protections for Skilled Workers

Guest worker legislation introduced this week by Sens. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) would enhance protections for skilled U.S. and foreign workers and give the federal government more authority to enforce program requirements.

The H-1B and L-1 Visa Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act of 2007 would overhaul the H-1B high-skill visa program and L-1 intra-company transfer visa programs.
 
Current law gives the Department of Labor inadequate authority to review employer H-1B applications for fraud or abuse. Current law also constrains the department’s authority to investigate and penalize employers that fail to comply with H-1B program requirements.  As a result, unscrupulous employers could take advantage of the H-1B program to exploit foreign workers and deprive willing and qualified U.S. workers of high-skill jobs.
 
The H-1B program reforms in the Durbin-Grassley bill would:

• Require all employers seeking to hire H-1B visa holders to first make good-faith efforts to recruit U.S. workers and not to displace U.S. workers from jobs to be filled by H-1B visa holders;
• Give the Labor Department enhanced and streamlined authority to review, investigate and audit employer compliance with H-1B requirements and to penalize fraudulent or abusive conduct; and
• Crack down on so-called “job shops” by prohibiting companies from employing H-1B workers as more than half of their U.S.-based workforce, and prohibiting outplacement of H-1B visa holders to other companies.

Unlike the H-1B program, the L-1 visa program does not have an annual numeric cap and does not include any protections for U.S. workers.  The L-1 program is relatively unmonitored, and experts have expressed concern that employers may be using L-1 visas to evade restrictions on the H-1B program.

Among its provisions, this bill would reform the L-1 program by:

• Ensuring that intra-company transfers occur between legitimate branches of a company and do not involve so-called “shell” facilities;
• Prohibiting “blanket petitions” for L-1 visas by requiring employers to submit a separate application for each L-1 visa holder;
• Prohibiting the outplacement of L-1 visa holders; and
• Giving the Department of Homeland Security authority to investigate, audit and enforce employer compliance with L-1 program requirements. 

The bill would not reduce the number of visas that could be issued under the H-1B or L-1 programs.  Rather, by providing fraud and abuse safeguards and enhancing oversight and enforcement authority, this bill would enhance the integrity of these programs in a way that balances the needs of U.S. workers and employers.

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