The past ten days have been an extremely harrowing and nerve-wracking time for Indian nationals on H-1B visas in the United States. It all began with a story by McClatchy — a very credible, 160-year old news organization — on December 30 which revealed that the Trump administration is considering new regulations that could stop “hundreds of thousands of foreign workers from keeping their H-1B visas while their green card applications are pending.”
The maximum duration an H-1B visa holder can stay in the United States is six years. A 2000 law, enacted in the final months of the Clinton administration — at the height of the Silicon Valley tech bubble — allows these visa holders to continue to stay in the country beyond the six years, provided they have applied for green cards.
The American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act, popularly known as AC21, allowed two different types of extensions: a three-year extension if the applicant’s I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker form has been approved; and a one-year extension if the applicant has filed for Labor Certifications more than 365 days before the end of the six-year visa term.
According to McClatchy, the administration is now considering eliminating both these extensions.
An American Bazaar analysis shows that between 300,000 and 400,000 Indian nationals may be currently living and working in the United States because of these two extensions. Several Indian media outlets, which have been covering the issue wall to wall, have arrived at a much higher figure: up to 750,000.
The McLatchy report and subsequent coverage of it in the Indian media caused widespread panic among H-1B visa holders and their family members. Several immigration attorneys have told the American Bazaar that they are getting calls from clients worried about being forced to relocate. Concerned tech employees have also been flooding internet immigration forums searching for answers and discussing whether to sell their homes and be ready to relocate.
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What are the chances of the administration implementing the proposal? Will the Department of Homeland Security deny H-1B extensions of hundreds of thousands who are awaiting their green card and force them to go back to their countries, in a move that McLatchy characterized as “self deportation”? Should those on H-1B panic? Could the report be true?
To answer the last question, first: So far the administration, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, or the Department of Justice have not denied the existence of the proposal. Which indicates that the proposal is indeed being circulated within the administration.
But the question is whether the White House is on a solid legal ground to implement it, or to re-interpret the two AC21 clauses that allow the extensions?
Here the general consensus among immigration lawyers is that it’s very unlikely that the administration would be able to eliminate extensions without the congressional approval.
As the New York-based immigration lawyer Cyrus Mehta points out on his blog, citing past precedents, “a presidential executive order cannot supersede a law previously passed by Congress.”
Murthy Law Firm, based in Owings Mills, MD, writes in its weekly bulletin on January 3 that even if the administration wants to eliminate H-1B extensions, legislative barriers might prevent it from doing that.
“There certainly are changes to the AC21 regulations that could be made,” it writes. “But, without Congressional approval, the plain language of the statute makes it unlikely that the Administration could completely eliminate the ability of H1B workers to extend status beyond six years.”
Rajiv S. Khanna, an Arlington, VA,-based immigration lawyer, is also of the opinion that the USCIS cannot discontinue H-1B extensions beyond six years. “In my opinion, the answer is: no,” he writes on his website. “Can they try? Yes, but they will need to change the law through the Congress. Drastic changes through executive action are legally unavailable.”
The three-year extension is granted under section 104 of AC21, which states that the US “Attorney General may grant, an extension of such nonimmigrant status until the alien’s application for adjustment of status has been processed and a decision made thereon.”
The one-year extension is given under section 106 of the law, which says, “The Attorney General shall extend the stay of an alien who qualifies for an exemption under subsection (a) in one-year increments until such time as a final decision is made on the alien’s lawful permanent residence.”
According to McClatchy, “administration is specifically looking at whether it can reinterpret the ‘may grant’ language” of the Act to stop the extensions.”
But Khanna disputes notion that the two sections can be reinterpreted to deny the extensions: “The law that permits, in fact mandates, the availability of extensions beyond six years is clearly binding upon the Trump administration,” he writes. “The idea that is being floated that there are occasional uses of the word “may,” which permits the government to implement or not to implement the extension provisions. That idea is incorrect. The law, American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act (AC21), permits no discretion in availability of extension beyond six years.”
Now, even if the administration goes through the congressional route to eliminate the extensions, it will not be an easy task. The provisions will have to be pushed as part of another bill. The last major immigration bill passed by one of the two chambers of the US Congress was in 2013. But that bill died in the House of Representatives. The last major immigration reform legislation was enacted in 1986.
One of the first to denounce the current proposal to eliminate the extensions was the influential US Chamber of Commerce, which houses the US-India Business Council. “It would tremendously be a bad policy to tell highly skilled individuals who are applying for permanent residency and have been working in the U.S. for several years that they are no longer welcome,” a Chamber spokesperson said in a statement emailed to The American Bazaar. “This policy would harm American business, our economy, and the country. Further, it is inconsistent with the goals of a more merit based immigration system.”
There are any number of reasons the administration should shy away from sending hundreds of thousands of people back to their countries, including economic, political, humanitarian and foreign policy factors.
Foreign nationals currently on H-1B extension are making huge contributions to the US economy. A significant of percentage of them owns homes in the United States. Those who do not own homes, rent apartments, or homes here. Just imagine the depression it could cause to home and rental market in this country should they all go back. Being decent wage earners, they also spend a good amount in this country.
As has been reported, a vast majority of H-1B visa holders are Indian nationals. Politically, it will certainly alienate the Indian American community, which is fast becoming an influential constituency in this country. It will also anger India, a friendly nation that is becoming more and more crucial to US interests in Asia.
From a humanitarian standpoint, sending hundreds of thousands of people, along with their family members, including many young children born in the United States back would be plainly immoral.
Reston, VA, -based immigration lawyer Johnson Myalil points out that sending the children would especially be hard to justify. “Many of these kids are born here,” he says. “They would be asking the parents of US citizens who were born here legally to go back. They are not ‘anchor babies’. Culturally, or otherwise, they have known only this country and they do not have anything back in the countries of their parents. If they are sent to these countries, it would be a real transplantation. There would be a real psychological toll.”
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H-1B visa changes in 2018: Employer preregistration, redefining the high specialty occupation, and withdrawal of work-permits of H-1B spouses (December 26, 2017)
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December 22, 2017)Indian beneficiaries filing the maximum number of H-1B petitions since 2007 (December 15, 2017)
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16 Comments
Soon, the Indian will colonize America by boring five-seven US citizen children per household, then their children will bore five-seven more Indian. That’s the number game.
“Politically, it will certainly alienate the Indian American community, which is fast becoming an influential constituency in this country. It will also anger India, a friendly nation that is becoming more and more crucial to US interests in Asia.”
Why would India be angered? India needs its top engineers and scientists back, to rebuild India. Sending Indians back to India would be a great gift to the great nation of India, not something that would anger it.
The Indian American community faces rampant discrimination because of the impact of H-1B visas. Many Indian-American graduates of STEM apply to employers with enthusiasm, only to have their applications tossed in the garbage once their potential employer learns that they are US citizens, not in need of a H-1B visa. Employers deliberately target hiring of foreign nationals due to the leverage they hold over the foreign national by way of the H-1B visa.
“Reston, VA, -based immigration lawyer Johnson Myalil points out that sending the children would especially be hard to justify. “Many of these kids are born here,” he says. “They would be asking the parents of US citizens who were born here legally to go back. They are not ‘anchor babies’. ”
Really? Seems like the very definition of an ‘anchor baby’. H-1Bs are guest workers, the intent never was for permanent residency in the United States. The intent of the H-1B visa was to fill *temporary* labour shortages until US citizens could be trained. That some of the H-1Bs dropped a baby or two doesn’t mean that they have a greater entitlement to live in America, versus being sent back to India. The intent, all along, was for the guest worker H-1B to return to India once the labour shortage in their particular area had abated. Given the horrifically high unemployment/underemployment in STEM these days, they all should have been sent back over a decade ago.
Besides, isn’t it immoral to rob India of the talent it needs to modernize, by allowing India’s best and brightest to move to the United States?
Good riddance, having any of these Indian H-1Bs in the country is a giant economic and natural security risk. They need to be sent home ASAP so Americans who are qualified can once again have jobs in the STEM sector. Anti-American animus reigns supreme and even top grads can’t obtain job interviews in the Silicon Valley.
The idea that Indians are somehow more qualified than an under-grad student here is laughable.
Very true. The only reason why corporations are full of them is that they work for less, and they require relatively little effort to retain compared to hiring Americans who would never tolerate the cubicle farms and other inhumane human resources practices deployed in a typical American corporation these days.
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Heaven forbid we discuss the Americans that were displaced from Motorola, American Express, Pfizer, Verizon, Cigna, Aetna, The Hartford, Disney, Adobe, Microsoft, Boeing, Caterpillar, John Deere, Delta, United, Bank of America, and, and, and…. give me a break. This article makes it sound as if they are being targeted. Absurd.
Shudder to think American jobs for the American people. Frankly, if your Indian and work in the US, you must find it odd there are IT shops here that are staffed 70/80/90 by mostly foreign national Indians. Its just wrong and needs to stop. Americans first.
most of the actual high skilled indians support removing these body shops. Coming up with a proper legislation like RAISE act is needed. the jobs done by body shops can be taken over by american citizens.. the actual h1b is around 10k-15k per year.
I’m an Indian working for past 10 years on H1-B visa. There is definitely H1-B visa abuse by a lot of body shop companies (TCS,WIPRO,INFOSYS etc) whose sole purpose is to cut costs and replace american workers. However denying extension affects genuine H1-B candidates like me who have advanced US degrees and working in the field of specialization. There are genuinely no American Citizens even remotely qualified to do what I’m doing. All the qualified American Citizens have been hired for years as unemployement is less than 5%. We have several openings in our team and we are unable to find candidates to fill those positions.
Highly doubtful that your company is looking for people to fill the openings on your team and are going about it in good faith. Unemployment in the STEM sector is extremely high and there are US citizens that can be hired for every STEM job at the right price.
If US citizens truly don’t exist to do what you need to do, then you need to hire some new grads and pay for their training. It completely defies credibility to suggest that STEM talent would magically be available from India or China, but not in the US citizen talent pool.
H-1B issuance numbers are close to 150k/year, not 10-15k/year.
Does that mean the US will need to hire bounty hunters to bring in the visa violators at $1K / head dead or alive?
The Third World invasion of the West is all based on Communist envy. The beggars from the Third World do not want to improve their own countries but would rather beg in Western countries. It is statistically impossible for the West which is 10% of the world population to babysit the 90% of the population located in the Third World by moving the Third World population to Europe and North America.
Kick the dirty illegals and other foreigners out of Europe and North America because they stink especially if they are on welfare. 99% of fake refugees placed in the USA are Muslim because the United Nations High Commission for Refugees is 80% staffed by Muslims and the Commission is a propaganda and Muslim population invasion agency of the Islamic Caliphate. In other words, it’s a deceptive racket and con-job.
Bibliography (mostly books) on illegal immigration, “Islamic immigration jihad / hegira,” fake refugees and the Islamic Invasion Army conquest of Europe and North America:
— ¡Adios, America! : the left’s plan to turn our country into a third world hellhole https://lccn.loc.gov/2015012276
— Alien nation : common sense about America’s immigration disaster https://lccn.loc.gov/94012478
— America alone : the end of the world as we know it https://lccn.loc.gov/2006024828
— America and Islam after Iraq http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/851989001
— American jihad : the terrorists living among us https://lccn.loc.gov/2002319345
— Ann Coulter, who has studied the illegal immigrant problem extensively, found the number of illegal aliens in the United States to be in the neighborhood of 40 million: https://conservativedailypost.com/justice-dept-and-dhs-jump-into-fray-as-report-delivers-scathing-proof/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=PostUp&utm_campaign=23_December-1
— Arab responses to fascism and Nazism : attraction and repulsion https://lccn.loc.gov/2013038483
— Arab winter comes to America : the truth about the war we’re in https://lccn.loc.gov/2014002639
— Between immigration and Islam : Europe rethinks itself : the refugees’ arrival in transforming the continent and creating new dynamics in the Muslim world http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1011145154
— Bible: “Before your very eyes, foreigners are devouring your land— they’ve brought devastation on it, while the land is overthrown by foreigners.” Isaiah 1:7.
— Black terror white soldiers : Islam, fascism & the new age http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/856904362
— The borders of “Europe” : autonomy of migration, tactics of bordering https://lccn.loc.gov/2017007582
— The case for Islamophobia : Jihad by the sword, America’s final warning http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/828486421
— Catastrophic failure : blindfolding America in the face of jihad https://lccn.loc.gov/2015905620
— The Catholic Church has converted to Communism and now propagandizes for Islam (web articles and books):
—- http://www.aim.org/aim-column/the-catholic-church-has-gone-socialist/
—- http://newpol.org/content/catholicism-new-communism
—- http://www.aim.org/aim-column/catholic-church-captured-by-progressive-forces/
—- http://www.aim.org/aim-column/how-the-russians-practice-disinformation/
—- https://capitalresearch.org/article/dissenting-catholic-charities-1/?blm_aid=6828040
—- AA-1025 : the memoirs of an anti-apostle https://lccn.loc.gov/91075254
—- Disinformation : former spy chief reveals secret strategies for undermining freedom, attacking religion, and promoting terrorism https://lccn.loc.gov/2013375219 (especially Liberation Theology and the Catholic Church)
—- John Courtney Murray, Time/Life and the American proposition : how the CIA’s doctrinal warfare program changed the Catholic Church http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/980302705
—- School of darkness https://lccn.loc.gov/54010204
— Combating jihadism American hegemony and interstate cooperation in the War on Terrorism https://lccn.loc.gov/2009005890
— Confessions of an Islamophobe http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1008899092
— A convergence of civilizations : the transformation of Muslim societies around the world https://lccn.loc.gov/2010042554
— The crisis of multiculturalism in Europe : a history https://lccn.loc.gov/2017936617
— Crusade and Jihad : The thousand-year war between the Muslim world and the global north https://lccn.loc.gov/2017942543
— The Death of the West http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/748295931
— The decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam : from Jihad to Dhimmitude : seventh-twentieth century https://lccn.loc.gov/95044452
— Deported : immigrant policing, disposable labor, and global capitalism https://lccn.loc.gov/2015019580
— The Dhimmi : Jews and Christians under Islam https://lccn.loc.gov/84047749
— Dhimmi peoples : oppressed nations https://lccn.loc.gov/98233288
— Easy meat : inside Britain’s grooming gang scandal http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/946672649
— The EU and Africa : from Eurafrique to Afro-Europa https://lccn.loc.gov/2012010864
— Eurabia : the Euro-Arab axis https://lccn.loc.gov/2004025171
— Eurojihad : patterns of Islamist radicalization and terrorism in Europe https://lccn.loc.gov/2014018139
— Europe, globalization and the coming universal caliphate https://lccn.loc.gov/2011014646
— Exodus : how migration is changing our world https://lccn.loc.gov/2013006809 (Migrants / fake refugees do not contribute to the tax base to support pensioners because 99% of them don’t work and don’t have any marketable skills because most are illiterate in all languages and are living on welfare so they don’t have any incentive to work).
— The fight of our lives : knowing the enemy, speaking the truth & choosing to win the war against radical Islam https://lccn.loc.gov/2011920640
— The force of reason https://lccn.loc.gov/2005935245
— Fortress Europe? : challenges and failures of migration and asylum policies https://lccn.loc.gov/2017935813
— France closes mosque for “encouraging radicalism” (website) http://en.apa.az/world-news/europe/france-closes-mosque-for-
encouraging-radicalism.html
— Global Jihad and America : the hundred-year-war beyond Iraq and Afghanistan https://lccn.loc.gov/2014004948
— God’s terrorists : the Wahhabi cult and hidden roots of modern Jihad https://lccn.loc.gov/2008299621
— Goodbye, Europe? Hello, chaos? : Merkel’s migrant bomb https://lccn.loc.gov/2017938499
— The grand jihad how Islam and the left sabotage America https://lccn.loc.gov/2010003842
— Hasta la vista Europe! : what you’re not being told about the refugee crisis and how it’s destroying Europe http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/954004180
— Hope for the world : to unite all things in Christ https://lccn.loc.gov/2016934631(“Islam is a religion that, according to its own interpretation, must also become the State. The Koran, and the authentic interpretations of it given by various experts in Koranic law, is destined to govern the world.” Islam is not a religion. It is a form of government. — Raymond Cardinal Burke of the Catholic Church of Rome).
— House of war : Islam’s jihad against the world https://lccn.loc.gov/2015011971
— In the house of war : Dutch Islam observed https://lccn.loc.gov/2009034600
— Infiltration : how Muslim spies and subversives have penetrated Washington https://lccn.loc.gov/2004031023
— Invasion : how America still welcomes terrorists, criminals, and other foreign menaces to our shores https://lccn.loc.gov/2002010845
— Islam, America’s Trojan Horse! : a Christian looks at Islam https://lccn.loc.gov/2003440494
— Islam and Dhimmitude : where civilizations collide https://lccn.loc.gov/2001040101
— Islam and Nazi Germany’s war https://lccn.loc.gov/2011381762
— Islam and terrorism https://lccn.loc.gov/2015945093
— Islam : religion or fascism? http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/966644220
— Islamic fascism https://lccn.loc.gov/2015030318
— Islamist terrorism in Europe : a history https://lccn.loc.gov/2016304577
— It is about Islam: exposing the truth about Isis, Al Qaeda, Iran, and the Caliphate https://lccn.loc.gov/2015463729
— The Jews as the destroyers of White, Christian societies as revenge for historical Antisemitism and the Holocaust:
—- Cultural insurrections : essays on Western civilization, Jewish influence, and anti-semitism https://lccn.loc.gov/2007032934
—- The devil’s pleasure palace the cult of critical theory and the subversion of the West http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/945191463
—- The culture of critique : an evolutionary analysis of Jewish involvement in twentieth-century intellectual and political movements https://lccn.loc.gov/98014905
—- The Jewish revolutionary spirit : and its impact on world history https://lccn.loc.gov/2010279421 (discusses Rothchild and Soros-type sponsorship of subversive activities against European / Christian countries throughout history)
— Jihad and Jew-hatred : Islamism, Nazism and the roots of 9/11https://lccn.loc.gov/2007031970
— Jihad in the west : the rise of militant salafism https://lccn.loc.gov/2010037471
— Jihad incorporated : a guide to militant Islam in the US https://lccn.loc.gov/2006020265
— The Jihadist threat : the reconquest of the West? https://lccn.loc.gov/2016417470
— Kaleidoscope : the resettlement of refugees in the United States by the voluntary agencies https://lccn.loc.gov/84673139
— Marxism and the Muslim world https://lccn.loc.gov/81081695
— Migrant, refugee, smuggler, savior https://lccn.loc.gov/2016049649
— Migration, terrorism, and the future of a divided Europe : a continent transformed https://lccn.loc.gov/2017011042
— Militant Islam reaches America https://lccn.loc.gov/2002006482
— Modern day Trojan horse : al-Hijra, the Islamic doctrice of immigration : accepting freedom or imposing Islam? http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/771465801
— Mohammed’s Koran : why Muslims kill for Islam http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1001342097
— Muslim mafia : inside the secret underworld that’s conspiring to Islamize America https://lccn.loc.gov/2009931566
— Muslims in the west after 9/11 : religion, politics and law https://lccn.loc.gov/2009023513
— Nazi propaganda for the Arab world https://lccn.loc.gov/2010934952
— The Nazi roots of Palestinian nationalism and Islamic Jihad https://lccn.loc.gov/2006551625
— Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East https://lccn.loc.gov/2013028622
— 90% of Middle Eastern immigrants to the United States do not pay income tax and receive money from the government “http://investmentwatchblog.com/90-of-middle-eastern-immigrants-to-the-united-states-do-not-pay-income-tax-and-receive-money-from-the-government/”
— No go zones: how denialism of radical Islam imperils the West https://lccn.loc.gov/2017034731
— No, we can’t : radical Islam, militant secularism, and the myth of coexistence https://lccn.loc.gov/2011026092
— On the immorality of illegal immigration https://lccn.loc.gov/2009908358
— Political Islam, world politics and Europe : from jihadist to institutional Islamism https://lccn.loc.gov/2013040343
— Pope Francis loves Islam https://pamelageller.com/2017/12/pope-migrants-mary.html/
— Al-Qaeda and Jihadi movements worldwide : Islamic Europe and the Frozen Conflicts http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/912951808
— Radical Islam in America : Salafism’s journey from Arabia to the West https://lccn.loc.gov/2010049193
— The rage and the pride https://lccn.loc.gov/2002112059
— Red-green axis : refugees, immigration and the agenda to erase America http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/947844269
— Reflections on the revolution in Europe : immigration, Islam, and the West https://lccn.loc.gov/2008051563
— Refugee resettlement and the Hijra to America http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/936107302
— Refugee resettlement in the United States : language, policy, pedagogy https://lccn.loc.gov/2015023405
— Refugees, security and the European Union http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/796079893
— Religion, ethnicity and transnational migration between West Africa and Europe https://lccn.loc.gov/2014006906
— Religious ideology and the roots of the global Jihad : Salafi Jihadism and international order https://lccn.loc.gov/2014428811
— The return of the Moor : Spanish responses to contemporary Moroccan immigration https://lccn.loc.gov/2008004327
— The rise of the Fourth Reich : the secret societies that threaten to take over America https://lccn.loc.gov/2008298928
— Rohingya hoax https://lccn.loc.gov/2009674844
— Shariah in America : Islamic Shariah’s threat to American liberty http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/773589009
— Stealth invasion : Muslim conquest through immigration and resettlement Jihad https://lccn.loc.gov/2016035955
— Stealth jihad : how radical Islam is subverting America without guns or bombs https://lccn.loc.gov/2008044011
— Stop the Islamization of America : a practical guide to the resistance https://lccn.loc.gov/2011276829
— The strange death of Europe : immigration, identity, Islam https://lccn.loc.gov/2017434818
— The terrorist next door: how the government is deceiving you about the Islamist threat https://lccn.loc.gov/2011009881
— To host or to hurt : counter-narratives on Rohingya refugee issue in Bangladesh https://lccn.loc.gov/2013315690
— Unholy alliance : radical Islam and the American left https://lccn.loc.gov/2004018257
— United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a Muslim and Jordanian Prince Ra’ad bin Zeid, has been outed for using the UNHCR as an instrument of Muslim invasion and conquest of North America and Europe under the guise of charity for fake refugees: https://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/asia/item/27803-furious-at-trump-disgraced-un-human-rights-boss-to-step-down
This thread is not related to illegals or refugees I’m surprised your racist Nazi comment is even approved by the moderators
There are no such thing as refugees or asylees, if there is a place offer better life and asylum/refugee program, i am sure many many Americans will apply for it.