Thread by @RudyTakala

🚨 NEW: Save Jobs USA has upgraded its challenge against H-4 workers with a request to the Supreme Court.

The case centers on whether foreigners with H-4 visas should be allowed to work in the USA — and more critically, whether DHS can allow migrants to work without input from Congress.

Obama's DHS passed the rule, and Pam Bondi's DOJ is defending it. Save Jobs USA is asking the court to overturn the Obama-Bondi rule.

Here are a few of the key excerpts:

"Without authority from Congress, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has permitted certain alien spouses of H-1B nonimmigrant guestworkers to work as well."

"The H-4 Rule was the first of many work programs created purely through regulation after DHS declared in 2015 that it shared with Congress the power to permit alien employment."

🧵 1/5 Save Jobs USA's challenge to the Obama-Bondi Rule

🧵 2/5 Save Jobs USA's challenge to the Obama-Bondi Rule

"The upshot is, since 2015, DHS has claimed that recognizes the Secretary’s authority to extend employment to noncitizens in the United States regardless of whether the alien is legal or a parolee. The Fifth Circuit rejects that claim, and the D.C. Circuit accepts it."

Pam Bondi relies "extensively on the D.C. Circuit’s new, unique interpretation of that, after an alien enters the U.S., Congress gave exclusive control to the executive to set the terms of the 'nonimmigrants' presence in the United States."

🧵 3/5 Save Jobs USA's challenge to the Obama-Bondi Rule

Save Jobs USA's "members represent the roadkill of our broken immigration system. Petitioner was formed by Americans citizens who worked at Southern California Edison until they were replaced by H-1B nonimmigrants."

"This sordid event proves Petitioner’s members are direct competitors with H-1B nonimmigrants in the job market."

🧵 4/5 Save Jobs USA's challenge to the Obama-Bondi Rule

"The stated purpose of the H-4 Rule is to increase the number of H-1B workers in the job market, where they are in competition with Petitioner’s members."

"Nevertheless, [Pam Bondi] makes the unserious argument that Petitioner must identify H-1B workers who 'would have left this country but for their spouses' having obtained such work authorization and show competition with them specifically."

"No such specific, impossible showing has ever been required. The H-4 Rule must fail completely in its stated purpose of increasing the pool of H-1B nonimmigrants for Petitioner to lack injury because even a slight concrete injury is sufficient for standing."

🧵 5/5 Save Jobs USA's challenge to the Obama-Bondi Rule

A little background on the key terms and history of the case:

H-4 visas: Created by the Immigration Act of 1990, signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. They grant lawful nonimmigrant status in the U.S to the dependents of H-1B holders.

H-1B visas: Also created by the Immigration Act of 1990. 2015: Obama DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson allowed H-4 holders to obtain Employment Authorization Documents (EADs), giving them the right to work. In theory, around three-quarters of a million people are currently in the USA working on H-4s. The federal government doesn't disclose the total number.

The lawsuit: on April 23, 2015, a group of tech workers who had been employed at Southern California Edison filed suit against DHS as Save Jobs USA, challenging its authority to put migrants to work without congressional approval. Obama's DOJ, led by Loretta Lynch, defended the rule. Pam Bondi is continuing that work today.

The Supreme Court: Save Jobs USA submitted its latest filing on August 22, 2025 in a request for the Supreme Court to take the case. The court hasn't decided whether to do so.

Pictured below are the principal actors responsible for the H-4 rules.