President- elect Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions has sought to restrict H-1B visa program that allows thousands of workers and students into US annually.
To curtail “abuse” of H-1B and L1 visas by foreign workers, Sessions assured that the Trump administration will take steps, which includes legislative measures.
Sessions communicated to the members of Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing for the position of US Attorney General that “It’s simply wrong to think that we’re in a totally open world and that any American with a job can be replaced if somebody in the world is willing to take a job for less pay”
Each year under the H-1B visa scheme, 65,000 workers and another 20,000 graduate student workers are admitted to the US. Trump always sent mixed signals on the campaign trail, occasionally carping the visas but other times calling them an imperative way to preserve foreign talent.
A longtime critic of the skilled-worker program Sessions replying to Senator Charles Grassley said “We have borders. We have a commitment to our citizens and you have been a champion of that. I’ve been honored to work with you on it”
Responding to another question by Grassley regarding the abuse of H1B visas, Sessions said, “I believe this has been an abuse. And I have been pleased to support your legislation and some others too, that others have produced that I believe could be helpful. It needs to be addressed”
In the past, both Sessions and Grassley have worked together to bring legislations on H-1B visas that badly hit Indian IT companies. The legislation that Sessions introduced last year was targeting to make the visas less obtainable to large outsourcing companies such as Infosys.
Recently Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) re-introduced “Protect and Grow American Jobs Act” to help stop the outsourcing of American jobs and to reform the nation’s high-skilled immigration program.
If Sessions is confirmed by the US Senate, he would head the Office of Special Counsel for immigration related unfair employment practices. This office which is part of the Justice Department enforces the anti-discrimination provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Donald Trump will be sworn into office on January 20, 2017. The impact on the H-1B program will be largely based on the changes he plans on executing which could be either keep the H-1B program but raise the bar or get rid of it entirely.
