CARLHAYDEN
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Posts: 10,638
Political Matrix E: 1.38, S: -0.51
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« on: April 03, 2007, 05:47:42 PM » |
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A good piece of legislation from Senator Durbin (gasp) and Senator Grassley from the AFL-CIO weblog:
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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