Top 10 H-1B employers are all IT offshore outsourcing firms, costing U.S. workers tens of thousands of jobs
H-1B and the 2016 election
Outsourcing is a flashpoint of the current presidential campaign with both Sec. Clinton and Mr. Trump accusing the other of doing or promoting it.
In the past, and even this year, Mr. Trump has made use of H-1B guestworkers in several of his companies. But he has proposed to raise H-1B wages and institute a requirement that employers recruit Americans first before hiring an H-1B worker. These are both good ideas that would help.
In the past, Secretary Clinton supported increases in the H-1B program. In a recent interview, however, she expressed pity for the Disney workers who trained their foreign replacements, calling the stories of American workers training their H-1B replacements, “heartbreaking.” She has yet to propose any concrete fixes to the program.
The path forward on H-1B: congressional action
The link between H-1B abuse and offshoring has been well understood for more than a decade. Newspapers with editorial boards that span the ideological spectrum—the New York Times, Tampa Bay Times, Boston Herald, Buffalo News, New York Daily News, New Jersey Star Ledger, Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Times—have called for fixing the H-1B program. There is no good reason that the U.S. government—but especially Congress—can’t act to fix the program.
Shutting off the H-1B offshoring fire hose should be a no-brainer for everyone: President Obama, both presidential candidates, and all members of Congress. The purpose of the H-1B program has been completely subverted. The good news is that we know how to fix the H-1B visa, and there’s already a vehicle to do it. Senators Grassley and Durbin have introduced legislation in the Senate that would fix the program: S.2266, the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2015. And Representatives Pascrell and Rohrbacher have introduced companion legislation in the House: H.R.5657, the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2016.