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CHICAGO – A federal judge on Tuesday overturned two Trump administration rules aimed at drastically reducing the number of visas issued to skilled foreign workers each year.
Changes to the H-1B visa program announced in October include the imposition of salary requirements on companies that employ skilled workers overseas and limits on skilled occupations. Department of Homeland Security officials saw it as a priority due to coronavirus-related job losses and estimated that up to a third of those who have applied for H-1B in recent years would be turned down under the new rules.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in California said the government failed to follow transparency procedures and his claim the changes were an emergency response to job losses due to a pandemic ignored because the Trump administration had pitched the idea for a while, but only released the rules in October.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is an event beyond the control of the accused, but it was under the control of the accused to take action sooner than they did,” White wrote.
The United States issues up to 85,000 H-1B visas each year in industries such as technology, engineering, and medicine. Usually, they are issued for three years and renewable. Most of the approximately 600,000 H-1B visa holders in the United States are from India and China.
The H-1B rules announced weeks before the election were part of President Donald Trump’s broader agenda to curb nearly all forms of immigration. In June, it issued an order temporarily suspending the H-1B program until the end of the year.
The United States Chamber of Commerce and universities, including the California Institute of Technology, have filed a lawsuit in California, arguing that there was not enough notice or time for the public to comment on the changes. . They also said the rules, especially related to the current salary requirement for visa holders, would have a drastic impact on new hires and “sever the employment relationship of hundreds of thousands of existing employees. in the USA”.
The University of Utah cited an example where an H-1B employee seeking renewal was paid $ 80,000, but was expected to be paid $ 208,000 under the new rule.
The judge agreed that the federal government had not argued for the implementation of the rules under the Administrative Procedure Act, which makes agencies accountable to the public by requiring a detailed process for the adoption of the rules. regulations.
“The defendants have failed to show that there is good reason to dispense with the rational, thoughtful discourse that is provided by the APA’s notice and commentary requirements,” White wrote.
The wage rule, proposed by the Ministry of Labor, went into effect in October, while the Homeland Security rule on occupations and other matters was supposed to come into effect on Monday. It also reportedly placed limits on “off-site” companies that employ and contract H-1B visa holders to other companies; their visas would have been limited to one year at a time.
“This is an extremely important decision to preserve the H-1B program,” said lawyer Paul Hughes, who represented the plaintiffs. “This decision allows these people to keep their jobs and their families in the United States.”
The Chamber of Commerce said in a statement that the decision “has many companies from various industries breathing a huge sigh of relief” with the visa changes having “the potential to incredibly disrupt the operations of many companies.”
Messages left with spokespersons for the labor and homeland security departments on Tuesday were not immediately returned.
The pay rule sparked at least two other federal lawsuits in New Jersey and Washington
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