Data sharing will give US agencies more ammo for investigating H-1B program violations

MUMBAI: Sharing of information between the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the US Department of Labour (DOL), will give the latter more teeth in conducting investigations of suspected H-1B violations – these could range from not paying the required wages, or benching H-1B workers (which isn’t permissible under the program).
As of September 30, 2019, there were nearly 5.80 lakh H-1B employees in the US, a significant number of which were Indians.Sponsoring employers may have to gear up for greater inquiries in the months ahead.
A memorandum agreeing to share information was recently inked between the DOL and US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which houses USCIS, the immigration agency.
In turn, DOL will provide access and share information about immigrant and non-immigrant petition records and data contained in labour certification and labour condition application databases. In late 2018, the Labour Condition Application (LCA) forms required to be submitted by sponsoring employers were amended to call for additional details, especially where H-1B workers would be placed at third-party client sites.
A press release issued by DOL says that the agreement establishes processes by which USCIS will refer suspected employer violations within the H-1B program to the DOL that USCIS identifies in the course of adjudicating petitions (ie: visa applications) – a source of information never previously accessed by the Department for enforcement purposes – and conducting administrative and targeted site visits. The enhanced collaboration and sources of information will be used by DOL in support of Secretary-certified investigations.
The agreement has been entered into pursuant to a directive given by US President Trump in his June proclamation. The Secretary’s power to personally initiate investigations of potential violations is a unique authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act that allows for more robust examinations of employers’ use of H-1B workers than are ordinarily undertaken. No previous Secretary of Labour has ever exercised this authority, adds the release.
USCIS has tweeted that, “This combined effort further enhances the federal government’s ability to crackdown on US employers exploiting the H-1B temporary worker program and discriminating against an American labour force significantly impacted by Covid-19.”