Durbin, Grassley Introduce Bipartisan H-1B, L-1 Visa Reform Bill

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, reintroduced bipartisan legislation to reform and close loopholes in the H-1B and L-1 visa programs.

The H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act targets fraud and abuse in our immigration system, provides protections for American workers and visa holders, and enhances transparency in the foreign worker recruitment process.

"Major companies are laying off thousands of American workers while filing thousands of visa petitions for foreign workers at depressed wages and poor working conditions. The Trump Administration's solution? An arbitrary $100,000 fee that would only price out the rural hospitals and universities relying on this program. Congress must step in to protect American workers and fix our broken immigration system. Senator Grassley and I will work to make this bipartisan bill the law of the land," said Durbin.

"Congress created the H-1B and L-1 visa programs as limited pathways for businesses to acquire top talent when it can't be found at home. But over the years, many employers have used them to cut out American workers in favor of cheap foreign labor. Congress must step in again to bring integrity back to these programs and restore dignity for American and foreign workers. There's bipartisan acknowledgement that these programs ought to be returned to their intended purpose. Our bill would make that shared goal a reality," said Grassley.

The H-1B and L-1 visa programs are intended to help U.S. companies recruit highly skilled noncitizens when there is a shortage of qualified domestic workers. However, employers have abused the program to displace U.S. workers and subject foreign workers to artificially depressed wages and poor working conditions. Foreign workers in H-1B and L-1 status rely on a single employer to maintain their temporary immigration status, leaving them vulnerable to abuse. These vulnerabilities are especially exacerbated for those stuck in the green card backlog, who must maintain their temporary status while waiting for a green card to become available.

The H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act would crack down on companies that import large numbers of H-1B and L-1 workers to displace American workers and outsource American jobs. It would also provide the Department of Labor (DOL) new authorities and responsibilities to ensure that program requirements are enforced.

Specifically, the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act would:

• Implement new wage, recruitment, and attestation requirements for employers seeking to hire H-1B and L-1 workers;

• Require employers seeking to hire H-1B employees to post those jobs on a searchable DOL website as a resource for both U.S. workers and laid-off H-1B nonimmigrants;

• Authorize DOL to place a fee on labor condition applications and use those fees to hire an additional 200 DOL employees;

• Make reforms to the H-1B program, including by prioritizing H-1B visa issuance for workers with higher levels of education in STEM and amending the definition of a "specialty occupation" to require a bachelor's degree or higher;

• Make reforms to the L-1 nonimmigrant program, including new time limits and evidentiary requirements for petitions from a "new office" and mandating cooperation from the Department of State in verifying foreign affiliates; and

• Increase penalties for wage violations, including fines or debarment of employers.

The legislation is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL).

Full text of the bill is available here.

Durbin and Grassley have long partnered to improve the H-1B visa system and first introduced their bipartisan legislation in 2007. Last week, the Senators took aim at ten major U.S. employers, including Amazon, Google and Meta, scrutinizing their mass layoffs of American employees even while the corporations filed thousands of H-1B visa petitions for foreign workers, often at depressed wages and subjected to poor working conditions.

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