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Legislation Introduced by Congresswoman DeLauro

108th Congress | 107th Congress | 106th Congress | Search for Legislation

108th Congress

H.R. 2702, The L-1 Nonimmigrant Reform Act

The L-1 Non-Immigrant Reform Act would close several loopholes in the immigration law that allow large corporations to bring in foreign workers, pay them less, and replace good paying American jobs otherwise held by American citizens.

Jobless Americans are increasingly finding themselves victimized by U. S. immigration policies. For many, particularly workers in the technology industry, these policies have made a bad situation much worse. Under the current immigration law, temporary guest worker visa programs such as the L-1, and the more widely known H-1B, allow hundreds of thousands of foreign workers to come to the U.S. and take job opportunities that might otherwise be available to our own citizens. While these are meant to be non-immigrant, temporary visas, the number of these workers now employed in the country under these two programs are estimated to be between 1,000,000 and 1,500,000.

The L-1 visa program allows a multi-national corporation to bring into the U. S. employees from their overseas subsidiaries on an "intra-company transfer" basis. The only requirements are that these guest workers must have worked for the company for one year out of the last three prior to the transfer and that the alien's prior education, training, and employment must qualify him/her to perform the intended services in the U. S. The L-1 visa is issued for one year and is renewable for up to five years and seven years for high level executives.

The L-1 visa program has no safeguards in place to ensure that corporations do not use the program to bring in lower wage labor to displace American workers. For example, under the L-1 program, there is no limit on the total number of foreign workers that can be brought into the U.S.; a corporation does not have to apply with the Department of Labor to attest that they are not displacing American workers; there is no requirement that the L-1 foreign guest worker be paid prevailing wages and benefits for the duration of their employment; and finally, corporations can execute blanket petitions for the L-1 transferees.

At a time when domestic unemployment is at the highest level in nearly a decade with tens of thousands of jobless tech workers and others looking for work, the situation with the L-1 visa needs immediate correction. My legislation will address each of these major issues and close the loopholes in the L-1 visa program which allow corporations to bring in cheap labor at the expense of American workers.

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