Lawsuits Challenge New Department of Labor Prevailing Wage Rule for H-1Bs

Since Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposed changes to the Department of Labor’s (DOL) prevailing wage rule for H-1Bs, three separate lawsuits have been filed challenging the rule.

In one, seventeen individual and organizational plaintiffs, represented by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and members of AILA's Board of Governors, filed a complaint seeking an injunction to stop the DOL interim final rule changing the prevailing wage rates issued at the beginning of October 2020. A motion hearing for a preliminary injunction is set for November 13, 2020. (Purdue, et. al., v. Scalia, et. al., 10/19/20)

In another, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, along with the National Association of Manufacturers, the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, and other organizations and universities filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against the DHS and DOL H-1B wage rules. A motion hearing is set for November 23, 2020. (Chamber of Commerce, et al., v. DHS, et al., 10/19/20)  The complaint notes:

“These rules are extraordinary: If left unchecked, they would sever the employment relationship of hundreds of thousands of existing employees in the United States, and they would virtually foreclose the hiring of new individuals via the H-1B program. They would also gut EB-2 and EB-3 immigrant visas, which provide for employment-based permanent residence in the United States.”

Iandoli Desai & Cronin will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates in future newsletters.