US media hones in on H-1B US visa abuses

American workers are being hurt by the abuse of H-1B US visas, according to the New York Times. The newspaper has called on Congress to shut down the loopholes that are allowing companies to bend the rules and use outsourcing recruitment companies to replace Americans with foreign workers.

An editorial in the New York Times slammed the practice of using the visas to see cheaper foreign labor displacing Americans from their jobs. The newspaper said that the H-1B US visas are only supposed to be used in order to hire college-educated immigrants from overseas who are employed in specialty occupations that need highly specialized knowledge, but that in a multitude of instances they are actually being used to lay off American workers, many of whom are forced to train their replacements, who are being paid significantly less.

The abuse of the US visas has been condemned by lawmakers from both of the major political parties in the US, yet because of the legal loopholes, it is an increasingly common problem. The New York Times said that the companies bend the rules by outsourcing the hiring of the workers to temporary staffing firms based in India, such as Infosys and Tata.

American employees from companies that have laid them off in favor of cheaper foreign workers have increasingly started to come forward to make their ire known, despite having been forced to a sign displacement agreement forbidding them from criticizing the business in order to get their severance pay.