Lawsuit challenges Trump admnistration's new H-1B visa rules

Washington, October 20

Several individuals and organisations, including the US Chambers of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s recent rules related to the H-1B visa, terming them “arbitrary” and “haphazard” regulations that will undermine high-skilled immigration into America.

Early this month, the Trump administration announced new restrictions on the H-1B non-immigrant visa programme, which it said was aimed at protecting American workers, restoring integrity and better guarantee that H-1B petitions were approved only for qualified beneficiaries and petitioners, a move which is likely to affect thousands of Indian IT professionals.

The interim final rule announced by the Department of Homeland Security will limit the definition of “speciality occupation”. It will also require companies to make “real” offers to “real employees” by plugging the loopholes and preventing the displacement of the American workers. Finally, the new rules will enhance the department’s ability to enforce compliance through worksite inspections and monitor compliance before, during and after an H1-B petition is approved.

The lawsuit filed by the US Chambers of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and several other organisations in Columbia on Monday alleges that “harmful and haphazard rules on H-1B visas”, if left in place, would affect hundreds of thousands of American-based workers and disrupt manufacturers’ ability to hire and retain critical high-skilled talent.

“The rules being implemented by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor undermine high-skilled immigration in the US and a company’s ability to retain and recruit the very best talent,” said US Chamber CEO Thomas J Donohue.

If these rules were allowed to stand, they would devastate companies across various industries, he said.

“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 frontline of developing vaccines and treatments, making critical supplies, and saving lives in our hospitals could have devastating consequences at this 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 programme unworkable for hundreds of thousands of American-based workers who are essential to the recovery and renewal of the industry and the economy, Kelly said.

Seventeen individuals and organisations, including universities and businesses, in their lawsuit, have challenged the US Department of Labour’s recent rule on wages related to H-1B visas.

The lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday alleged that the poorly drafted and improperly issued rule did not comply with the procedural rules for rule-making and is substantively “arbitrary”, incorrect and irrational. PTI