EAGLE Act Proposes Reform to the Current Immigration System : Immigration Law Blog

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), chair of the Home Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship, and Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah) have launched the Equal Entry to Inexperienced Playing cards for Authorized Employment (“EAGLE”) Act. Its reforms give attention to employment-based inexperienced playing cards, the H-1B visa program, and family-sponsored visas.

The EAGLE Act

The proposed invoice makes it tougher for fraud to happen. The invoice requires all H-1B job postings to be listed on the U.S. Division of Labor (“DOL”)‘s web site for 30 days. Employers are prohibited from using greater than 50% of their workforce by way of H-1B jobs. The Act additionally requires employers to regulate wage necessities for H-1B jobs in a means that displays adjustments in the price of residing all through america.

The invoice’s sponsors strongly really feel that the proposed adjustments will scale back H-1B visa fraud, which is able to, in flip, permit American employers actually in want of international workforce to satisfy their calls for higher, even with out rising the H-1B visa cap.

The invoice additionally proposes a treatment to the present inexperienced card backlogs. By phasing out per-country caps by 2032, the invoice would forestall U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies (“USCIS”) from being overwhelmed with an infinite variety of backlogged functions.

Current Immigration System Requires Reforms

It’s broadly recognized that the immigration system has had many setbacks, and reform is long-awaited. The final main reform was in 1990. At the least 5 presidents have channeled their efforts in proposing drastic immigration reforms, however some have seen little success.

The current immigration system has positioned caps on many visa applications, proscribing the variety of visas issued. This restricts employers with a direct want for workforce, as they can not discover sufficient staff to make use of inside america. For the reason that pandemic, the U.S. has seen acute labor shortages, inflicting employers to foyer for a rise within the employment-based visa cap.

Employment-based everlasting resident visas are topic to a 7 p.c per-country cap. India and China have the utmost variety of expert staff on employment-based visas, leading to expert staff from these nations ready for many years for everlasting residency. Because of this, these expert staff are sometimes unable to immigrate to america.

“We are actually seeing recruiters from exterior America luring these with highest abilities away from the U.S.,” Lofgren said in a press launch. In contrast to america, many nations, like Canada and Australia, use merit-based immigration applications. Within the merit-based immigration system, potential immigrants are scored primarily based on language abilities, instructional levels, and wage provides. Visas are supplied to those that meet the minimal necessities.

Reforms to H-1B Visa Program

One of the crucial coveted visa applications employers use is the H-1B, an employment-based visa for immigrants in a specialty occupation. Every year, solely 85,000 H-1B visas are issued, together with 20,000 put aside for candidates with grasp’s levels and PhDs from American universities. There are way more candidates every year than the numeric restrict permits, so a lottery is held. The H-1B program can also be criticized for fraud by employers, a few of whom make use of international staff and pay them lower than they might pay equal American staff.

To study extra about this weblog submit or if in case you have some other immigration issues, please be happy to contact me at rglahoud@norris-law.com or (484) 544-0022.