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Pkfans Junior Artist Username: Pkfans Post Number: 242 Registered: 04-2007 Posted From: 24.16.155.74 Rating: N/A |
The Sanders-Grassley “Employ America Act” -- Summary • The Employ America Act would ban the use of the immigration system for an employer who was forced by economic or business needs to lay off workers. • Under the bill, DHS may not approve a petition “for any visa authorizing employment” if either o The employer has had a layoff triggering a WARN Act notice within the 12-month period preceding the proposed hire date; or o The employer intends a layoff requiring notice under WARN. • By forbidding the approval of “any visa authorizing employment,” the bill appears to include not only temporary visas (such as H-1Bs and Ls), but also permanent visas (employment-based “green cards”). • It also appears to include not only initial petitions for new hires, but also extensions for people who have already been given visas and are already here working. • So, for example, an employer who had a WARN-triggering layoff or intended one at some point in the future, o could not have an H-1B petition approved for a new hire; o could not get the normal three-year extension for an existing H-1B employee; and o could not have an immigrant petition approved in order to get a green card for an existing H-1B employee. • The bill would also banish foreign nationals currently working for the employer. If an employer provides a WARN Act notice of a layoff, “any visas approved” for that employer in the preceding twelve months would expire within 60 days of the notice. • These prohibitions apply unless the layoff will not reduce the total number of U.S. Citizens working in the United States for that employer. How the WARN Act Works • The WARN Act covers employers with 100 or more employees. • A “mass layoff” notice must be given, 60 days in advance, if a layoff will result in an employment loss over a 30-day period at the employment site for 500 or more employees. (Layoffs of between 50 and 499 employees would also count for smaller employers, if the laid-off employees would account for a third or more of the employer’s workforce.) • A WARN Act notice must also be given if there are two or more layoffs within a 90-day period that would meet the employment loss threshold, even if no single layoff would meet the threshold http://immigrationvoice.capwiz.com/immigrationvoice/issues/a lert/?alertid=15130466 |