Grassley, Durbin Take Aim at Tech, Finance and Retail Sectors for Favoring H-1B Visa Holders over American Workers

BUTLER COUNTY, IOWA– Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) are scrutinizing major corporations for filing thousands of H-1B skilled labor visa petitions after conducting mass layoffs of American employees.
“In evaluating the high unemployment rate for American tech workers, we cannot ignore the massive, ongoing layoffs ordered by you and your peers in Big Tech C-suites over the past few years … At the same time you have been laying off your employees, you have been filing H-1B visa petitions for [thousands of] foreign workers,”Grassley and Durbin wrote in letters to 10 major employers in the United States.
“With all of the homegrown American talent relegated to the sidelines, we find it hard to believe that [you] cannot find qualified American tech workers to fill these positions,”the lawmakers concluded.
Grassley and Durbin are requesting information and data from each company regarding their recruitment and hiring practices, as well as any variation in salary and benefits between H-1B visa holders and American employees.
The senators' inquiry comes at a time when the unemployment rate in America’s tech sector is“well above”the overall jobless rate. According to the Federal Reserve, recent American graduates with STEM degrees now face higher unemployment rates than the general population.
Grassley and Durbin are longtime partners on H-1B visa reform and the lead authors of theH-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act.
The senators wrote to the following companies, including two which have been, or are currently under investigation for discriminatory H-1B hiring and firing practices:
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