The Latest And Greatest Developments In Immigration Law

About one year ago, President Trump signed the "Buy American Hire American" (BAHA) Executive Order to "create higher wages and employment rates for workers in the United States, and to protect their economic interests." Under the auspices of BAHA, the U.S. immigration landscape has seen many changes in rules, policies, and operations in the past year. Below, are some of the key changes as well as anecdotal trends we've noticed so far.

There has been an increase in sharing of information between the Department of State, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Justice designed to combat and prevent immigration fraud. This is in line with the Administration's goal to continue to streamline existing and new processes in the immigration system. President Trump has mentioned a need to revamp the H-1B visa category. As such, USCIS has made available two email addresses, one for the H-1B category and the other for the H-2B category, encouraging anyone to report allegations of fraud. This will likely lead to an increase in reports of alleged fraud (primarily by disgruntled ex-employees) and resulting investigations. Due to the active information sharing between agencies, a case that begins with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security could lead to a second investigation started by another agency, such as the DOL, who could initiate a wage and hour investigation. Pursuant to BAHA, there will be an increase in employer site visits to confirm H and L visa related jobs. USCIS has indicated it may expand the scope of their visits to include L-1B Specialized Knowledge petitions. To start out, USCIS will focus on L-1B employees who will spend much of their time off-site at third-party client sites. USCIS has been offering a wider variety of reports and data about work visas to the public in the interest of providing more transparency to U.S. workers. In just one year, USCIS has issued five separate Policy Memoranda related to the H-1, L-1, and TN visa categories. Regarding I-9 enforcement, more employers are expected to get a visit from the government for an audit of their Forms I-9. While anecdotal evidence does not yet point to a big...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT