Sen. Rick Scott recently introduced legislation targeting employers who sponsor Permanent Resident Cards, aka Green Cards, for foreign workers.
The American Hiring Transparency Act aims to “incentivize hiring skilled American workers over cheap, foreign labor” by imposing a $10,000 fee on businesses that outsource labor through the Application for Permanent Employment Certification.
“A good job is the cornerstone of the American dream, and federal policies should always put American workers first. That’s why I’m introducing this bill,” Sen. Scott affirmed.
The PERM Certification Process
The bill also cracks down on loopholes present in the Program Electronic Review Management (PERM) labor certification system.
According to the Department of Labor (DOL), the program allows employers to outsource foreign labor once the agency certifies to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that there aren’t “sufficient U.S. workers able, willing, qualified and available to accept the job opportunity in the area of intended employment.”
The DOL must also confirm that foreign employment will not impede “the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers.”
PERM Certification Loopholes
One example of how employers bypass the requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to obtain PERM labor certification is the deliberate limitation of advertising reach.
Under the DOL’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA), employers must “place a newspaper advertisement on two separate days, including a Sunday, in a local newspaper of general circulation which serves the area of intended employment.”
Sen. Scott argued that businesses can abuse the requirement by purposefully advertising employment in “low-circulation physical newspapers to discourage U.S. workers from applying.”
The $10,000 fee will be used to invest into and enhance USAJOBS.gov, which will be prioritized to give "Americans a single, user-friendly platform to discover job openings and submit applications."
