Just yesterday, Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont proposed an amendment of the bailout bill to ban all banks receiving TARP money from hiring H-1B workers.
“If banks are going to be getting TARP money — American taxpayer money — then they should be hiring American workers”said Senator Grassley.
While I definitely can see the nationalism behind the argument, why should H-1B workers be among the first victims of the economic downturn? I’m an H-1B worker in the U.S. and I really don’t see the point of the senator’s efforts. Here’s why:
- H-1B workers pay taxes, in fact we pay them religiously or we risk deportation. Can’t say the same about some of the US government officials.
- H-1B is designed to fill jobs that cannot be filled by Americans. I do acknowledge that some areas of the job market does abuse H-1Bs, but they are mostly outsourcing technology firms, not banks who’re closely watched by regulators.
- H-1B are all buying new houses as they build their own American Dream, why take that away from a depressed market?
If it does pass, I feel terrible for the brilliant young minds who just landed a job at these banks and have yet to process their H-1B. Good luck guys.
*UPDATE – Senators Sanders and Grassley softened what they had originally proposed, a flat-out one-year ban on hiring foreign-visa workers. The current policy: banks seeking visas to bring in foreign workers would be barred from displacing or replacing American employees for three months before and three months after petitioning the government for the visas. Does this apply to H-1B extensions too?
On the surface, this modification looks slightly less extreme. However, this is still a massive deterrant for companies looking to hire H-1B talent.
