
H-1B should attract best talent: Homeland Secretary Nielsen
The US
should select the "very best" among the applicants under the H-1B
visas, the Trump administration has said, vowing to step up efforts to ensure
that these work visas, the most sought by Indian IT professionals, do not harm
domestic workers.
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies
to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or
technical expertise.
The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of
thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.
Perhaps no other visa category has received as much attention
in recent years as the H-1B, as reports of abuse of the program have caused
outrage among the public, Homeland Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told members of
the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee during a Congressional hearing.
"No qualified hardworking American should be forced to
train their H-1B replacement, and then let go," she said.
"The number of H-1B petitions routinely exceeds the
statutory cap, and among that pool of petitions, we should endeavour to select
the very best for the privilege of coming to the United States for work,"
Nielsen said.
The Department of Homeland Security seeks to ensure that
American workers are not pushed aside for the promise of cheaper, foreign
labour, and the employers, recruiters or any of their agents do not exploit
foreign workers, she said.
The Trump administration has stepped up its measures to
detect employment-based visa fraud and abuse, but certain nonimmigrant visa
programs need reform in order to protect American workers better, she said.
"While current law only requires it for certain
employers, which are few in number and can easily meet the wage and degree
exemption, all employers should be required to certify that they have made a
good faith effort to recruit US workers before filing an H-1B petition, and
have offered jobs to qualified and available American applicants," Nielsen
said.
Although current law prohibits some H-1B employers from
displacing US workers, there are loopholes that must close, she told the
members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"We have to make sure the H-1B programme does not harm
American workers who may be as qualified and willing to do jobs that foreign
workers are imported to fill," she said.
As per US President Donald Trump's 'Buy American, Hire
American Executive Order, the Department of Homeland Security is reviewing
current guidance and regulation for opportunities to protect American workers
while also providing good faith employers the opportunity to recruit H-1B
workers where needed.
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