BlazeTV’s Sara Gonzales has quickly become the queen of busting H-1B fraud in the state of Texas. Her on-the-ground reporting and investigative work have produced big results: Governor Greg Abbott (R) froze new H-1B hiring at state agencies and universities, Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) issued civil investigative demands to nearly 30 North Texas companies, and the Labor Department’s inspector general joined her on the ground in Dallas targeting ghost offices tied to hundreds of visa petitions.
And now Congress is getting involved.
On this episode of “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered,” Sara is joined by Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) to discuss a bill she says will implement substantial fines against H-1B fraudsters and companies that fire Americans to hire cheaper foreign labor.
H-1B fraud has essentially become its own “industry,” says Van Duyne.
“It’s basically human trafficking, where they’re bringing people in, charging them, and then having them just kind of hang out while they are collecting dollars based on their work,” she explains.
“But once they’re in the country, then they’re getting student visas, they’re coming back, and then eventually, if they’re not getting paid, they’re ending up on some kind of NGO list, where they are indirectly benefiting from taxpayer dollars.”
Sara brings up the original intention of the H-1B visa: “a temporary non-immigrant visa” that allows someone to “work here” and then “go home.”
It was designed “to help U.S. businesses be able to be globally competitive by bringing the best of the best. This was supposed to be workers that they could not find in the U.S. that had these really ultra special talents,” Van Duyne adds, noting that some American businesses take advantage of the loophole by “firing American workers” and replacing them with foreign workers who they pay “substantially less in wages.”
Reform is a top priority for Van Duyne and other Texas Republicans in the House.
“One of the bills that we’re going to be introducing next week is actually increasing the fines, because right now it’s a slap on the wrist,” she says, explaining how the current penalties are so small that after the payouts these operations pull in, getting caught is still “well worth it.”
“So we’re looking at increasing the fines to $100,000, and if you are laying off American workers, you’re going to be further investigated if you are applying for these H-1B visas — and that we’re looking at doubling that, so $250,000 for that,” Van Duyne continues.
Sara loves this proposition. “Hit him in the pocketbook. Make it hurt, because they have no problem doing that to the American worker that they’re undercutting and displacing,” she says. “Wow. I really hope that you guys get that across the finish line.”
To hear more, watch the episode above.
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