Trump Signs "Buy American, Hire American" Executive Order—Another Empty Bag of Promises on Immigration Reform

On April 18, President Trump signed an executive order that initiated a government-wide review to bolster the "Hire American" and "Buy American" directives. According to Market Watch, the review process will last 220 days and may lead to new legislation and additional executive orders that target immigration reform. The reality is, however, that he order itself is a big nothing. The agencies were already reviewing changes to the H-1B and other other programs. This Executive Order is nothing more than publicity meant to cause concern among those who use the program, and to embolden those who oppose it.

While the Executive Order’s supposed primary focus of this review will be to investigate alleged “abuse” of the H-1B visa program and to identify ways to stop companies from replacing American employees with lower-cost immigrant workers. Yet, The executive order does not outline any definitive changes to the H-1B program; rather, it instructs the Attorney General, Secretary of Labor, Secretary of State, and Secretary of Homeland Security to issue new guidance and propose new rules to ensure “the integrity of the immigration system in order to ‘Hire American’.” For any real effective change, Trump will need congressional permission and statutory changes, not regulatory fixes and empty executive orders.

In addition, The Department of Justice recently announced its intention to ramp up investigations into companies that hire H-1B and L-1 workers. If your company hires workers through the H-1B or L-1 visa program, it is critical that you ensure that your hiring processes are compliant with U.S. immigration laws.

Charles Kuck is an employment immigration lawyer in Atlanta who can evaluate your situation and provide comprehensive legal guidance. Call 404-816-8611 to schedule a consultation at Kuck Immigration Partners.

Are U.S. Companies Really Paying H-1B Workers Less Than American Employees? No!

Researchers from Glassdoor recently evaluated a sample of 58,025 salary offers for more than 100 jobs on H-1B visa applications in fiscal year 2016. According to the data, H-1B workers earned more than American employees in about half of the jobs examined; however, H-1B workers earned significantly less than their American counterparts in certain occupations. These included financial analyst, data scientist, and software engineer. In fact, the salary difference for software engineer jobs was 17 percent in some cities.

Despite these outliers, the researchers concluded that H-1B workers usually are not paid less than American employees. This finding is consistent with a 2011 study conducted by the Institute of Labor Economics. The result is unsurprising since current U.S. immigration laws require companies to pay H-1B workers a salary that is at or above the “prevailing wage” for similar jobs.

Employment visa reform seems inevitable, and companies that intend to continue hiring immigrant workers must adapt their compliance systems or risk accusations of fraud and abuse of the H-1B and L-1 visa programs. If your company hires workers through the H-1B or L-1 program, contact Kuck Immigration Partners for legal guidance. Call 404-816-8611 to schedule a consultation with an immigration attorney in Atlanta.

If You Are An Immigrant (even a US Citizen), Here Are 9 Things You Should Know

Are you a Naturalized U.S. Citizen, Lawful Permanent Resident, Visa Holder, or an Undocumented Immigrant? We recommend you take the following steps to protect yourself in our current version of America. The last couple of weeks have reminded immigrants, even naturalized U.S. citizens, that they were not born in the United States. Our office has received countless phone calls, emails, and social media messages from people worrying about what their family’s future in the United States holds. Most people want to know what they can do now to protect themselves from what promises to be a wave of anti-immigration activity by the federal government. Trump's Executive Order on Interior Enforcement has some provisions that should make most Americans shiver. We recommend the following actions for each of the following groups: Naturalized U.S. citizens. In particular if you have a foreign accent, and you are traveling within 100 miles of any US Border (including the oceans...

Seven Reasons Why the Georgia Legislature Should Repeal HB-87

Recently the Alabama Attorney General called on the Alabama State Legislature to repeal parts of Alabama's horrid anti-immigration law ( HB 56), because of the "unintended" consequences of the bill (frankly, what happened was not unintended). Because of the similarity between the two laws, Georgia's Speaker of the House, David Ralston was asked whether Georgia Legislature would repeal part or all of HB 87, Georgia own anti-immigration law. HB 87 has caused almost a half a billion dollars in damage to the Georgia economy (along with untold suffering in Georgia's immigrant communities) without any noted or reported positive effect. Speaker Ralston plainly stated that the Georgia Legislature would NOT do anything to repeal HB 87 . While it understandable why a politician would not admit that a pet bill he shepherded and pushed through the state legislature was simply bad law, it is also clear that Speaker Ralston is facing a challenge on his RIGHT in th...

Why is USCIS Taking So Long to Renew DACA Work Permits?

If the calls to our office are any indicator, there are thousands of DACA recipients whose work permit applications were filed at least three months prior to expiration, who are still waiting for their renewed work permits. Without renewed permits, these individuals lose the right to work legally, the right to drive, and may once again accrue unlawful presence. The DHS published a notice in October 2014 advising DACA recipients that they could file their request for extension up to 150 days (5 months) prior to expiration. As with all things government, very few of the DACA recipients, who tend not to frequent government websites, knew about the memo and many did not file so far before expiration perhaps thinking that extending a work permit was a like extending a drivers license, its is done in a few minutes. As an experienced immigration lawyer will tell you, the USCIS does nothing quickly, and certainly does not worry that a person may lose their job or their drive...

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