Obama, Secrecy and Rule of Law in the H-1B visa

The Obama Government ran on a promise to make Government more transparent, more accountable and promised to restore the Rule of Law so blatantly flouted by the previous administration. Yet,  in most immigration cases, and certainly in the H-1B context, all those principles are simply baseless and unfulfilled campaign promises.

AILA has just filed a lawsuit against USCIS on the issue of transparency. The administration beginning last summer conducted  hundreds of raids on H-1B sponsoring businesses. Yet the rules and guidance of this whole process is guarded in secrecy. Requests by AILA to divulge this review process under the Freedom of Information Act were denied.

These are PROFESSIONAL employees--- Computer professionals, Engineers, Doctors, teachers. The Government shows up at their Company door step, demand to see their records, with no notice, and many times with no uniform procedure. The Officers ask to see anything and everything. The businesses are all sizes, but all professional service providers.

In a separate class action lawsuit the USCIS is being challenged on the January 08, 2010 memo,  which "created" additional requirements in respect of direct control of employee by the employer.  This has virtually eliminated the computer consulting business from sponsoring H-1B visa holders. This requirement was no where in the plain language of the H-1B law.  Also the the senator who introduced the H-1B legislation  in the Congress  verified that this was Never Congressional intent.  Moreover an agency cannot rulemake without  publishing a notice and giving the public a chance to comment. No such notice and comment was done for this memo. This clearly violates the Rule of Law that Obama championed. In terms of immigration law the old Government's policies are not only being followed, but in many instances further deviating from the Rule of Law.


For more information contact http://www.visatous.com"> Houston Immigration Lawyer or http://www.visatous.com">Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee