Today, the American Immigration Council’s Legal Action Center filed a lawsuit against DHS and USCIS on behalf of the American Immigration Lawyers Association alleging that their FOIA requests were denied in error. The lawsuit demands that the DHS and USCIS approves the requests for copies of the standards and procedures used by USCIS to determine which of the H-1B sponsors will be subjected to an audit and / or site visit under the H-1B visa program.
The USCIS is expected to conduct up to 25,000 site visits in 2010 alone of H-1B visa sponsors to ensure that they are complying with the H-1B visa rules. The USCIS has kept secret their review policies and how they determine which company will be audited or receive a site visit. The USCIS has outright denied the FOIA requests, and AILA is suing under the premise that President Obama’s stated policy is an open and transparent government policy.
All of the recent lawsuits happening are a result of USCIS’ recent enforcement of H-1B site visits and also of USCIS’ stricter H-1B eligibility guidelines. USCIS’ strict new policies are causing H-1B visas to be much less sought after than even in the year of 2007, for example. There has been an obvious decline in employers filing H-1B visas, possibly due to USCIS’ strict enforcement.
For more information, please go to http://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/sites/default/files/docs/FOIA-LawsuitPressRelease-07-20-2010.pdf