H-1B spouses’ H-4 work authorization means more job competition for U.S. workers: judges

[90DayFinancier 910]

 

• Ethan Baron
• PUBLISHED: November 8, 2019 at 11:18 am | UPDATED: November 8, 2019 at 3:09 pm
• Categories:Business, California News, Latest Headlines, Nation & World, News, Politics, Technology

A group of technology workers, allegedly laid off and replaced by foreign citizens on the controversial H-1B visa, scored a major victory Friday in a lawsuit that seeks to scrap a rule granting employment to spouses of H-1B workers.

A federal appeals court panel ruled that the former technology workers have proven that H-1B holders compete against them for jobs and, crucially, that letting H-1B spouses work under the H-4 visa program’s employment authorization increases that competition because if the spouses couldn’t work, some H-1B holders would leave.

Spouses of H-1B workers have since 2015 been allowed to work in the U.S., and many live and are employed in the Bay Area.

In its ruling, a three-judge panel in the Washington, D.C. circuit pointed to public comments submitted back when the administration of former President Barack Obama was poised to grant the H-4 work authorization.

“More than sixty commenters wrote that they had planned to move out of the United States, but will instead remain and pursue lawful permanent resident status as a result of the new rule,” according to the ruling, spotted by BloombergLaw. Two dozen respondents commented that they had already left the U.S. because H-1B spouses couldn’t work, the judges added.

The judges also noted that in creating the rule, the federal government had asserted that it would provide an incentive for H-1B workers and their families to stay in the U

 

https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/11/08/h-1b-spouses-h-4-work-authorization-means-more-job-competition-for-u-s-workers-judges/amp/