Lawsuit filed against DHS to oppose OPT increase

Date: Friday, May 30, 2008 1:21 AM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1872 -- 5/29/2008 >>>>>

Folks, let's get ready to RRRRRRRRRUMBLE!

It's still not too late to register your public comment on the OPT increase.
To find out how to do it, go to the newsletter archive and read the following
newsletter: "2008-04-28 public comment now accepted for OPT extension" or
click this link:

http://tiny.cc/OPTlawsuit

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20080529/pl_usnw/irli_sues_department_of_homeland_security

IRLI Sues Department of Homeland Security Thu May 29, 6:27 PM ET

Contact: Garrett Roe of Immigration Reform Law Institute, +1-202-742-1830,
roega@irli.org

Suit Seeks to Block Tech Guest Worker Program Masquerading as On-the-Job-
Training for Foreign Students

WASHINGTON, May 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Immigration Reform Law
Institute (IRLI) today sued Secretary Michael Chertoff and the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) in the United States District Court in New Jersey. The
lawsuit seeks to have the court declare DHS regulations implemented last month
unlawful.

DHS guest worker program extends the time foreign students with degrees in
Mathematics, Engineering, Science or Technology are allowed to work after
graduation under Optional Practical Training, from 12 months to 29 months.
The OPT regulations allow unlimited numbers of foreign students to work as
candidate H-1B workers, directly competing with qualified Americans. DHS
estimates that tens of thousands of aliens will immediately apply under the
new regulations.

Immigration law is very clear that student visas are for students to come to
the U.S. solely and temporarily for study. Instead, DHS invented its own guest
worker program to circumvent the annual H-1B visa cap, said Mike Hethmon,
General Counsel for IRLI. DHS not only took this illegal action but did it as
an emergency measure to prevent American citizens from weighing in.

The DHS ruling encourages employers to discriminate against U.S. workers.
Employers can now use the OPT program to train foreign students for two-and-a-
half years, rather than invest in our own domestic IT labor force, charged
John Miano, an attorney and noted advocate for programmers working with IRLI.
These are not jobs that Americans wont do, or cannot be trained to do. Rather,
these are desirable computer programming and engineering jobs that are being
denied to U.S. workers with the complicity of the federal government.

Three professional organizations, the Programmers Guild, American Engineering
Association, and Brightfuturejobs.com, as well as individual members injured
by DHS actions, are Plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

DHS has both overstepped its authority and caused injury to American workers -
- just as the economy heads downward, said Hethmon. Its too bad that defending
the American workforce is a job that American public officials wont do. But
with the help of our workforce heroes at the Programmers Guild, AEA, and
Bright futures, IRLI is confident the courts will declare the new OPT guest
worker program to be illegal.

IRLI is a public interest law firm working to protect the legal rights,
privileges, and property of U.S. citizens in immigration-related matters.

SOURCE Immigration Reform Law Institute

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