The H-1B visa program, which has effectively imported hundreds of thousands of immigrants, most of whom are from India, has gained much-needed attention in recent months as abuse of the system has come to light. On Friday, the Department of Labor provided an update on its September initiative, Project Firewall.
On Friday, the Department of Labor announced on X: “As part of our mission to protect American Jobs, we’ve launched 175 investigations into H-1B abuse.”
The agency said that it had discovered a ‘bounty of concerns.’
Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said that the Department of Labor is “using every resource at our disposal to put a stop to H-1B abuse and protect American Jobs. Under the leadership of @POTUS, we’ll continue to invest in our workforce and ensure high-skilled job opportunities go to American Workers FIRST!”
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Fox News reported that government officials were unable to comment on the exact nature of the new investigations. The agency said that it had discovered a “bounty of concerns.”
While the investigations are a sign of improvement, the number of investigations is strikingly low, critics say.
Virgil Bierschwale, a leading critic of H-1B visas and their impact on American workers, responded to the announcement, “I can quickly bring that up to 32,000 companies being investigated if you have the manpower.”
The exact number of so-called “H-1B dependent employers” is unknown, but many are believed to be in the rapidly proliferating tech sector.
According to a Department of Labor fact sheet, an employer qualifies as H-1B dependent if it has eight visa workers at a company with fewer than 25 employees, 13 or more visa workers at a company with between 26 and 50 employees, or 15% of the workforce at companies with more than 51 employees.
On X, Eric Daugherty echoed the calls for increased investigations: “Good. We need MORE!”
Others pointed out that the abuse of the system should be cause for ending new visa approvals. One commenter said, “Why approve any when fraud is this rampant?”
This round of investigations follows the Trump administration’s September 19 plan to force companies to pay $100,000 for new H-1B visas in an attempt to incentivize hiring American workers.
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