America First Legal has launched a government-wide investigation into Microsoft’s apparent prioritizing hiring H-1B Visa holders over American workers.
The legal organization has fired off Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the Department of Labor, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of State, and the Department of Justice.
According to AFL, “the government and the private sector continue to put the American people last to propel their open borders agenda – accountability is long overdue. America First Legal is determined to expose any government involvement in this anti-American hiring scheme.”
“It is despicable for a company to fire its own workers and then turn around and hire foreigners as replacements, all just to save a few dollars. The letter and the spirit of the law forbid such practices. American companies that engage in this appalling behavior need to be held accountable. It’s time for them to start following the law and respecting the rights of American workers.“ said James Rogers, America First Legal Senior Counsel, in a press release about the effort.
The organization cited a recent report from the New York Post that found Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Salesforce are hiring cheaper foreign workers after laying off Americans.
“In theory, our immigration laws should protect American workers from unfair competition from foreign H-1B visa holders,” AFL’s press release explained.
“In practice, however, employers frequently abuse the H-1B visa program to cut costs by hiring cheaper foreign workers,” the statement continued. “For example, one study found that nearly 80% of all approved H-1Bs were for jobs below market rates. And employers do not have to pay payroll taxes for H-1B holders from dozens of countries because of special agreements the United States has signed with those aliens’ home countries. In October 2021, the Departments of Justice and Labor settled a longstanding Trump Administration investigation into Facebook (now part of Meta) related to its use of foreign workers instead of U.S. workers, resulting in Facebook paying millions of dollars in civil penalties.”
Since taking office, Joe Biden has rolled back many of former President Donald Trump’s H-1B reforms that were protecting American workers.
For example, AFL points to “the prior practice of allocating H-1Bs by lottery and instead set up a system to allocate them by wage level, a crucial reform that made it virtually impossible for companies to hire low-wage foreign workers to replace their American employees.”
AFL stated, “The Biden Administration delayed the implementation of this needed rule and then revoked it entirely. The Trump Administration also tightened up a number of definitions and program requirements to stop H-1B abuse. On President Biden’s first day in office, he withdrew important elements of this reform, and then later revoked it entirely. Now, Microsoft and other woke corporations are taking advantage of these destructive rollbacks.”
This story originally appeared on TheGateWayPundit
