Trump admin launches 175 investigations into alleged H-1B abuses

Trump administration labor secretary Lori Chavez-Deremer announced 175 investigations into the H-1B visa program. The program allows American employers to hire foreign workers to fill positions for which there are not qualified American applicants. However, there are allegations that the system has been abused and Americans are getting short-changed while companies hire foreign workers to do the jobs for less. 

Chavez-Deremer said "there are companies across this nation who have used this program, but they've either abused it to get into the program, or they're abusing it within the program.

"So I have launched an enforcement initiative, Project Firewall to protect the American worker, first, against foreign labor, and the abuse that these companies possibly have done."

"We have over 175 investigations that we've opened, and for the first time in history, as a Secretary of Labor, I have signed those investigations personally, because we want to make sure that these companies are not abusing. We want to make sure that they're protecting the American worker, first by one: posting the jobs available to Americans.

"Two: if they do need to use the H-1B, Visa Program, within the program, we have to make sure that they're paying those fair wages, not to depress the American wages. And if that employe[e] leaves that company, they have to make sure that they're posting that with the government so that we know where those employers have gone and those employees.

"So it's been somewhat of a problem, but we want to protect the American worker first, and Project Firewall will do that. We will be actively investigating these companies if they're getting in the way of protecting foreign workers over American ones."

Project Firewall was launched in September at the same time President Donald Trump imposed a $100,000 fee for H-1B visa petitions. That fee was an attempt to prevent "companies from spamming the system and driving down wages."