🧵1/4 Yes, there is fraud in this program and it manifests largely in the form of fraudulent credentials, innaccurate prevailing wage levels, illegal attempts to circumvent the PERM process, managers purposefully selecting H-1Bs (primarily from India) over the rest of the world, etc.
HOWEVER and please understand, the program was designed to displace American workers and it has been working extremely well in this regard since it was created in 1990.
I addition to going after fraud, DOL has a number of tools that would effectively curb a company's appetite for H-1Bs and these include:
HOWEVER and please understand, the program was designed to displace American workers and it has been working extremely well in this regard since it was created in 1990.
I addition to going after fraud, DOL has a number of tools that would effectively curb a company's appetite for H-1Bs and these include:
https://x.com/ifspp/status/2074923961557610928
2/4 Raise and reform the prevailing wage sytsem under the H-1B and PERM program. Employers classify highly skilled roles at artificially low wage levels, particularly Levels 1 and 2 of the four tier system.
Further, salaries for H-1B should not be below the 75th percentile for any of the prevailing wage categories. Consider what this looks like in practice. In San Jose, the median wage for a software engineer runs roughly $140,000 a year. Under the proposed rule, an employer could classify an H-1B worker at Level I and pay around $95,000, with full government approval, while simultaneously telling Congress they cannot find enough qualified Americans. That $45,000 gap is not a rounding error. Multiplied across hundreds of positions, it represents an enormous structural subsidy extracted from American wage standards.
The deeper problem is conceptual. Any wage floor set below the median mathematically guarantees that H-1B workers will cost less than the typical American in the same role.
Further, salaries for H-1B should not be below the 75th percentile for any of the prevailing wage categories. Consider what this looks like in practice. In San Jose, the median wage for a software engineer runs roughly $140,000 a year. Under the proposed rule, an employer could classify an H-1B worker at Level I and pay around $95,000, with full government approval, while simultaneously telling Congress they cannot find enough qualified Americans. That $45,000 gap is not a rounding error. Multiplied across hundreds of positions, it represents an enormous structural subsidy extracted from American wage standards.
The deeper problem is conceptual. Any wage floor set below the median mathematically guarantees that H-1B workers will cost less than the typical American in the same role.
3/4 Private surveys: The federal government collects extensive wage data through its Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics system, but employers are still allowed to rely on private surveys that can produce dramatically lower estimates depending on how they are designed. For large corporations hiring thousands of workers, even small wage differences translate into enormous labor-cost savings.
Moreover, Under current law, the skill-based prevailing wages that are less than the median are not even lawful for H-1B because 8 U.S.C. § 1182(n)(1) requires H-1B workers to be paid at least the prevailing wage for the occupation and location, not occupation, location, and skill.
Moreover, Under current law, the skill-based prevailing wages that are less than the median are not even lawful for H-1B because 8 U.S.C. § 1182(n)(1) requires H-1B workers to be paid at least the prevailing wage for the occupation and location, not occupation, location, and skill.
4/4 Establish a national Electronic Jobs Registry for PERM Recruitment:
The PERM (Program Electronic Review Management) labor market test is a critical component of the employment-based permanent residence process that employers must complete before sponsoring an H-1B visa holder for a green card. This test was intended to demonstrate that there are no qualified U.S. workers available for the specific position before hiring a foreign worker. Employers are frequently exploiting the PERM recruitment process by running ads in low-visibility newspapers and requiring applicants to submit résumés via postal mail—methods designed to limit real competition from U.S. workers. These practices are technically compliant but fundamentally undermine the purpose of the labor market test.
The PERM (Program Electronic Review Management) labor market test is a critical component of the employment-based permanent residence process that employers must complete before sponsoring an H-1B visa holder for a green card. This test was intended to demonstrate that there are no qualified U.S. workers available for the specific position before hiring a foreign worker. Employers are frequently exploiting the PERM recruitment process by running ads in low-visibility newspapers and requiring applicants to submit résumés via postal mail—methods designed to limit real competition from U.S. workers. These practices are technically compliant but fundamentally undermine the purpose of the labor market test.
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