How the Trump 2.0 Immigration Policy is Impacting Tech Employers The breakneck speed with which the new Trump administration has implemented changes to US immigration policy and various federal government agencies has certainly caused confusion for many employers. No industry has been immune from those impacts, but the high-tech sector – which has long been reliant on foreign professional skilled workers – is particularly impacted. How will these changes affect the high-tech sector’s future? Potential Upcoming Changes Using the first Trump administration as the measuring stick, we can expect the following developments to unfold for the remainder of 2025 and beyond: 1. Increased Inspections of H-1B Worksites The news has given extensive attention to the federal government’s increased ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raids to gather and deport undocumented workers, and we’ve also seen an uptick in audits of form I-9s. The hi-tech sector rarely faces these kinds of issues since their workforce is mainly composed of highly skilled professionals within engineering, finance, and white-collar management. However, that does not mean your industry is immune from other immigration-based government enforcement actions. One particular area is USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Service) and its FDNS (Fraud Detection and National Security) Directorate. The FDNS investigates potential fraud committed by companies that sponsor the various USCIS work authorizations. And the most common actions are investigations confirming employers are following the H-1B employment requirements. The H-1B is the most common type of employment sponsorship leveraged within the hi-tech industry. Many hi-tech companies from large, publicly traded organizations to small start-ups hire H-1B workers. A majority of the H-1B sponsored workers are some of high-tech’s most critical engineers. With the US adding 85,000 new H-1B employees to the workforce every year, there is no doubt this has been a valuable resource for high-tech employers that cannot find enough qualified US workers to fulfill these roles. The H-1B requirements mean that employers must pay their H-1B employee wages commensurate with the local wages for such positions and that such employees be actively employed. That means H-1B employers cannot reduce their H-1B employees’ wages nor can they bench those employees when no work is available. Further, H-1B employees can only be employed at locations that are specifically mentioned on their sponsorship. To assign them to locations not mentioned on their H-1B petition is a strict violation of the H-1B regulations. Much of the news regarding current administration’s stance on immigration is directed towards ICE enforcement actions against undocumented workers But FNDS should not be overlooked. We are already seeing an increased level of FDNS inspections with their officers and contractors making site
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