Statements On Introduced Bills And Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS -- (Senate - May 22, 2007)

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By Ms. COLLINS:

S. 31. A bill to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to reduce fraud in certain visa programs for aliens working temporarily in the United States; to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the H-1B Visa Fraud Prevention Act of 2007.

Many American businesses rely on the H-1B visa program. When employers can demonstrate that there are too few U.S. workers to fill particular positions with defined education and skills standards, the program allows temporary, non-immigrant workers to fill vacancies in engineering, sciences, medicine, health, and other specialties.

The program is of considerable benefit to our economy. Unfortunately, there has been a long history of some unscrupulous employers attempting to abuse the H-1B program. Last fall, the Portland Press Herald newspaper in Maine printed a three-part series resulting from its in-depth investigation of H-1B abuses.

The newspaper found evidence of shell companies filing applications for H-1B visas in Maine, but no evidence of H-1B visa holders actually working for those businesses in Maine. One company rented office space in Portland for a year and submitted at least 160 H-1B and green-card applications on behalf of foreign workers, but the building manager never saw anyone there, and was asked to forward all mail to an address in New Jersey.

This legislation will help detect and prevent the kind of fraud identified by the Portland Press Herald.

Before I describe the details of my legislation, I want to acknowledge the
leadership of Senators Grassley, Durbin, Gregg, Hagel, and Lieberman on this issue. They have also drafted bills aimed at reforming the H-1B visa issuance process as well as expanding the number of H-1B visas. My hope is that we can join forces to craft an amendment to the immigration bill that will curb the fraud afflicting this program.

Specifically, my legislation is targeted at detecting employers who do not have legitimate business operations that require H-1B workers and who intend only to transfer the H-1B workers they

receive to another employer. This bill prohibits employers from contracting their H-1B workers to an employer in a different State.

The Portland Press Herald's investigation showed that some employers may have filed for H-1B workers in Maine in order to take advantage of a lower prevailing wage, then transferred those employees to States where a higher prevailing wage would have been required on the H-1B application.

The legislation I am proposing would remove onerous restrictions on the Department of Labor's ability to investigate suspected fraud. It would allow the Department to investigate applications that have clear indicators of fraud or misrepresentation, instead of merely checking for completeness and obvious inaccuracies, as current law provides.

It also would expand the types of information that can be used to investigate fraudulent activity and eliminate a requirement that the Secretary of the Department of Labor personally approve each investigation. In addition, to further deter companies from filing fraudulent applications, the legislation would double the current monetary penalties.

Preventing H-1B fraud and abuse also requires that the Department of Labor work more closely with the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, which is the agency that ultimately approves an H-1B visa application. To that end, this legislation requires the Director of USCIS to share with Labor information it receives from employers who file H-1B visa applications that may indicate noncompliance with the H-1B visa program.

USCIS has taken first steps to detect fraud in other types of visas. For example, last July USCIS completed an assessment of religious-worker benefit fraud that showed fraud in one-third of the cases surveyed. From these surveys, USCIS developed known indicators of fraud for religious-worker visas that it can now compare against incoming applications.

USCIS began a similar assessment of benefit fraud for H-1B visas nearly a year ago. It is not yet completed, despite repeated inquiries by my staff on its status. This legislation requires completion of the H-1B fraud assessment within 30 days, so that USCIS can begin using this valuable tool to uncover fraud in other H-1B applications.

This legislation fills gaps in our ability to ensure that H-1B visas are granted and used in the manner Congress intended. I urge my colleagues to support this proposal as we consider immigration-reform legislation.

I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be printed in the Record

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