The Walt Disney Company and other employers regularly utilizing the H-1B visa program are under investigation for alleged abuse, according to a Department of Homeland Security letter to Congress.
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) acting director James McCament wrote in a letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) that there are “multiple investigations” of employers who use the H-1B visa.
Every year, more than 100,000 foreign workers are brought to the U.S. on the H-1B visa. Most recently, that number has ballooned to potentially hundreds of thousands annually, as universities and non-profits are exempt from the cap. With more entering the U.S. through the visa, Americans are often replaced.
Among those being investigated, USCIS confirmed, are Disney, Eversource Energy–formerly Northeast Utilites–and the University of California San Francisco.
“U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has participated in multiple investigations regarding the possible misuse of the H-1B visa program by employers…” McCament wrote in the letter.
Northeast Utilities was most recently called out for their mass lay-off of Americans who were subsequently forced to train their foreign replacements. Fired tech worker Craig Diangelo announced to Breitbart Texas that he would be running for Congress in Connecticut’s Fifth District as a result.
Diangelo said in 2013, he was working at Eversource Energy, when suddenly the company partnered with Infosys and Tata Consulting Service to replace at least 220 Americans with Indian nationals coming to the U.S. through the H-1B.
Meanwhile, the Disney corporation laid off nearly 250 American IT staff and replaced them with H-1B laborers, leading 30 of those laid off to file a discrimination lawsuit, as Breitbart Tech reported.
This year, the University of California San Francisco was hit with a lawsuit by replaced Americans after firing 50 full-timers and 30 contractors, outsourcing their jobs through India-based HCL, Breitbart Tech reported.
USCIS’ letter to Grassley also noted that in accordance with President Donald Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” Executive Order, the agency would “propose new rules and issue new guidance relating the H-1B visa program.”
“In particular, in accordance with the Executive Order, the proposed new rules and guidance would seek to supersede or revise previous rules and guidance in ways that would protect the interests of U.S. workers, including through the prevention of fraud and abuse,” the letter stated.
The Trump Administration, in recent months, has increased pressure on outsourcing firms and H-1B employers.
In April, a White House briefing statement called out, as Breitbart Texas reported, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, and Cognizant–all of which are responsible for the mass replacement of Americans at companies like Carnival Corporation and MassMutual Life Insurance.
“And you’ve seen some of these high-profile examples where you have career employees at a company who have been working there for 10, 20 years, and then they get laid off and they hire a contracting firm using H1B workers at much less pay,” the statement said. “And again, this is an issue that labor unions have called attention to for a long time.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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