Labor groups seeking tighter limits on H-1B visas

Unions will propose putting new limits on the H-1B visa program for highly skilled foreign workers as part of comprehensive immigration reform, according to a policy proposal released today.

The H-1B system "is all done at the behest of employers to take advantage of a broken system," said Paul Almeida, president of the professional employees department at the AFL-CIO. "At this point, there really is no need to have the programs that are there at all."

Under existing rules, 65,000 H-1B visas are allowed each fiscal year, a quota that is usually filled within a few days of the April 1 application deadline. This year, however, applications are down, with the government receiving only 42,000 applications by Friday.

Unions would institute a market test to verify a shortage of available U.S. workers; increase penalties for fraud; shorten the length of time visa holders have to remain with the same employer; and give U.S. workers the right to sue companies if they are displaced or refused a job given to an H-1B candidate. Business groups are wary of any new restrictions, arguing the visas fill an important need in the economy.

"Perhaps some reforms are necessary, but the idea of authorizing a new private cause of action in court is unacceptable," said Randy Johnson, vice president for labor, immigration and employee benefits at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "The last thing the country needs is more litigation."

The report, which expands on a set of general principles released earlier this week, lays out in detail how the AFL-CIO and the union political federation Change to Win jointly envision an immigration plan based on workers' rights. The agreement between the two labor groups healed a significant split among Democrats on immigration. The plan would create a commission to decide how many temporary and permanent foreign workers to let in each year. It would also make changes to the H-2B visa program for seasonal workers and prohibit issuing those visas entirely if unemployment in a given sector is over 7 percent.

The unions are also proposing to create a replacement system for E-Verify, which employers can use to check whether employees are legally authorized to work in the United States. Unions are pushing a new system that would assign each immigrant a PIN number and attach that number to biometric data. Business groups have said they will not support any immigration bill unless its language on temporary-worker programs lets firms determine their hiring needs.