Trump DOJ defends Obama-era policy to give work permits to spouses of H-1B migrants: Report

Donald Trump's Department of Justice said in a court-ordered response that the Attorney General can give work permits to migrants even though Congress explicitly bars the hiring of illegal migrants, Breitbart reported. This response came in the context of a 2015 lawsuit, launched by American professionals against then-president Barack Obama's 2015 decision to provide work permits to the spouses of the H-1B workers

Obama's deputies, at that time, defended that this helped companies to retain workers imported from India and other nations.

In its legal brief submitted Friday, the Justice Department also said that American professionals should not be allowed to sue the government over the 2015 decision as they can't prove that they suffer direct economic harm from the additional foreign workers (the spouses of H-1Bs).

What are H-1B, H-4 and H4EADs? Unpacking the 2015 case

H-1B is the visa program that allows US companies to hire foreign skilled workers. H4 is the visa that the spouses of H-1B visa workers carry. In 2015, the Obama administration agreed with business requests to provide work permits to H4s, known as Employment Authorization Documents (EADs). This work permit for the spouses of H-1Bs is known as H4EADs.

John Miano, a lawyer at the Center for Immigration Studies, is behind the lawsuit. The Supreme Court asked the Justice Department for its statement before deciding whether to take up Miano's lawsuit after it was denied by the DC appeals court.

According to Miano, there are roughly 250,000 H4EAD workers in U.S. white-collar jobs and the vast majority are the wives of the Indian visa workers. Miano told Breitbard that the H4EAD program is especially bad because the spouses take lower-level jobs that would otherwise go to new American graduates.

'Do you know C++'

Miano said in the 1990s when he was into programming, a New York bank wanted to hire him as a technology consultant but the route was through an Indian vendor who interviewed him for the role. Miano told Breitbart that he was asked whether he knew C++, he said yes but the bank later told him that the vendor who interviewed him said he did not know C++. "The Indian firm was “hoping that by keeping me out, they might keep the next person out too, so that the bank’s only choice would be to hire one of the Indians,” said Miano, sharing his personal experience.