US govt launches 175 probes into ‘potential abuses’ in H-1B visa programme

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer has certified the launch of the latest probes — a “mechanism that the department never employed before”, Fox News stated in its report.

“The Labor Department is using every resource currently at our disposal to put a stop to H-1B visa abuse, and for the first time, I am personally certifying investigations into suspected violations to better protect American jobs,” Chavez-DeRemer said in a statement. 

“Under the leadership of President Trump, we will continue to invest in our workforce, ensuring high-skilled job opportunities go to American workers first,” the Secretary said.

Initiating the project two months ago, the department had leveraged the existing authority of the Secretary “if reasonable cause exists” that an H-1B employer was not in compliance. 

“Violations may result in the collection of back wages owed to affected workers, the assessment of civil money penalties, and/or debarment from future use of the H-1B program for a prescribed period of time,” the release noted. 

What have the probes uncovered?

The probes as part of the federal crackdown on potential abuse of the H-1B visa programme have uncovered a “bounty of concerns”, Fox News reported, citing the Labor Department.

One of the key revelations included documents filed by employers with the department in order to employ H-1B holders, as well as other visa programs, called Labor Condition Applications (LCA). Investigators found that the work locations listed on the LCA did not exist, or that workers were unaware of the jobs they were supposedly assigned to perform according to their applications, Fox News reported.

As per the Project, employers are required to give notice to American workers before hiring H-1B workers when filing an LCA — a part of the project’s efforts — and accurately describe the job an employee will work with details of the employee’s wage. 

However, the probes found that employees were paid less than what was detailed in an LCA, or that employers were sloppily copying and pasting job notices for American workers that had little connection to the job described in the LCA,” the report stated.

Some international workers with advanced degrees were also paid far less than what is promoted in a job description, which the DOL said, “drives down wages for visa-holders and American workers alike, while also forcing American employees with the same qualification to accept lower wages in order to stay competitive,” the report quoted. 

Moreover, the probes revealed that “some employers did not even notify US Citizenship and Immigration Services when an H-1B visa holder was terminated, or found significant lag times between a termination and an employer notifying the agency that oversees the US’s immigration system.”

Lastly, they found some employees to be taking part in “benching” — where H-1B visa holders are not paid anything when they are in-between active work projects, Fox Digital noted.