The
U.S. government has made more than a few policies that resulted in a
court battle between businesses and the government. The latest legal
battle brewing is going to be fought over staffing companies and new
laws that essentially remove staffing firms from being able to
recruit foreign workers who would need a H-1B visa.
When the
global economy soured, the number of visa applications hit some of
the lowest
levels in years. That decline was a reaction to the fact that
there were fewer jobs as companies folded or froze hiring until the
economy started to turn around.
EWeek
reports that three staffing companies and a staffing agency advocacy
group have filed
suit against the USCIS, its director Alejandro Mayorkas,
along with the DHS, and its secretary Janet Napolitano.
The
plaintiffs in the suit are Broadgate, Logic Planet, and DVR Softek
with the help of staffing advocacy group American Staffing
Association and business-technology advocacy group TechServe
Alliance. The battle stated when an official at the U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services named Donald Newfield published
a memo that changed the rules of what constituted an
employer-employee relationship.
The rule change
stipulated that the employer had to have daily control over the H-1B
worker. The nature of a staffing firm is that once recruited and
placed they rarely see the workers they hire out to companies within
America. The reasoning for the change in the rules surrounding H-1B
workers was to try to prevent staffing firms from working with other
companies that were fraudulently or abusively using H-1B foreign
workers.
CEO of TechServe alliance Mark Roberts said, "USCIS'
actions are a thinly veiled attack on the IT staffing industry and
its business model. IT staffing is a lawful business model that
greatly benefits the U.S. economy, U.S. businesses and U.S. workers.
The government should not be allowed to attack the industry by
circumventing the rulemaking process and reversing longstanding
policy by decree."
John Miano, founder of the Programmers
Guild, says, "If the mere requirement that people actually work
for their employer will put many companies out of business, that
demonstrates the extent of the rampant abuse in the H-1B program.
When Congress created the H-1B program it expected that such visas
would only be used when U.S. workers cannot be found and as a last
resort."
The changes in the rules of the H-1B program
were made after a report found that the H-1B program had a violation
rate as high as 20%. Despite the legal battle, statistics show that
H-1B visa holders only constituted 0.06% of the national labor force
in 2009.
