US Federal Court Cancels All H1B Rules Imposed By Donald Trump

Giving a huge relief to students, the US federal court has recently discarded all the H1B Visa rules implemented by the previous president, Donald Trump. Trump implemented these rules in order to make sure that the American workers would not be replaced with cheaper labour from overseas. Several business groups, especially the tech giants from the Silicon Valley, had complained last year stating that these rules would make it harder for them to hire graduate students as they would not qualify under them.

Universities also said that it would be an uphill task for them to lure foreign students if the new rules come into play. A US federal court has turned down a proposed Trump-era rule that included changing the H-1B visa selection process from a random lottery to one that would prioritize higher-wage jobs. This ruling by the court would give huge benefits to Indian STEM students looking to take jobs in the USA.

In 2020, the US Chamber of Commerce had filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump government’s directive, resulting in a district court temporarily ordering a stay on the rule. The plaintiffs argued that the new rules violated the Immigration and Nationality Act, which comprises that a noncitizen should be issued H-1B visas “in the order in which petitions are filed for such visas.” Moreover, this would make it harder for the US universities to attract overseas students if they would not be able to get jobs through the H-1B visa program upon graduation.

In September 2021, Judge Jeffery White of the Northern California District Court said that the rule was invalid on the grounds that it violated the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). It contends that Chad Wolf, acting DHS secretary at the time the rules were issued, had been illegally appointed to the position.

Earlier, challenges to the new H1B Visa rules and other proposed visa amendments had been upheld in the district court on the same grounds. As the government presented no new facts or legal arguments on that issue, Judge White reached the same conclusion as the district court judge, on abolishing the rule.

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Every year, the US issues around 65,000 new H-1B visas with another 20,000 reserved for applicants with a US master’s degree. The number of visa applications is usually way higher than this, leading to selection being done by random lottery. A study by the National Foundation for American Policy said that the new proposed would have also made it more difficult for physicists, microbiologists, and medical scientists (among others) to gain H-1B petitions since their wages are closer to the bottom two levels of the prescribed H-1B wage levels.

Indian students can now go for their higher education in the US without worrying about job opportunities after graduation.

 Read Also:

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