Whistleblowers Sound Alarm on H-1B, Outsourcing Industry

Whistleblowers are speaking up about alleged abuses and fraud in H-1B visa program and its impact on Americans.

In a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) conference call of more than 750 stakeholders, Americans working in the outsourcing industry told stories of abuses they have seen by multinationals and firms that offshore U.S. jobs, as the Economic Times reported:

According to people who are aware of the discussions on the call, the sentiment on the call was mostly “negative” with many people commenting about ill practices at Indian outsourcing companies, and some even going on to say that that there is a mismatch between how much companies paid H-1B visa holders and how much they make themselves.

For instance, one US worker on call and who was in charge of interviewing H-1B and L-1 workers commented that most of the workers applying for these visas weren’t highly skilled and his recommendation to USCIS was to be “stricter”. Another US worker from a tech company said he has seen fraud happening and suggested that the US should hike visa fees to curb their misuse. Out of the over 750 stakeholders who joined the call, around 30 people offered comments. Callers were allowed to be anonymous.

Also on the conference call were representatives for Americans who lost jobs due to the H-1B visa.

Every year, more than 100,000 foreign workers are brought to the U.S. on the H-1B visa. Most recently, that number ballooned to potentially hundreds of thousands each year, as universities and non-profits are exempt from the cap. With more entering the U.S. through the visa, American workers are often fired and forced to train their foreign replacement.

The outsourcing lobby immediately pushed back on the whistleblowers’ accusations with immigration attorney Hardeep Sull claiming the comments “had no merit.”

Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” executive order brought “operational changes” to the H-1B visa program and sometimes illegal outsourcing measures, according to the National Law Review. With those changes, the Department of Labor increased “targeted investigations” into anti-American practices, while also reviewing whether or not foreign computer programmers should be eligible for the H-1B visa.

In the last decade, U.S. companies tried to outsource nearly 3.5 million jobs through the H-1B visa. Of those, officials in the U.S. government approved 2.63 million applications, Breitbart Texas reported.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.