Republican lawmakers urge end to H-1B after DHS scraps automatic work-permit extensions

Washington, October 19 (IANS): Two Republican Congressmen have called for the H-1B visa programme to be scrapped altogether, after the Trump administration finalised a rule ending automatic extensions of work permits for many foreign workers and their spouses.“Amazing news! Now end the H-1B program entirely,” Congressman Greg Steube of Florida wrote on X on October 17, quoting a post on the rule.“Pass my EXILE Act and put American workers first,” he said.The bill, H.R. 7451, the “Ending Exploitative Imported Labour Exemptions Act”, would set the annual H-1B cap at zero from fiscal year 2027.Steube introduced it on February 9, and it was referred to the House Judiciary Committee the same day. It has seen no further action and has no recorded votes.A day earlier, Congressman Riley Moore of West Virginia wrote: “H-1B and OPT programs are SCAMS that undercut and replace American workers with cheap foreign labour.”“650k Americans graduated with computer science-related degrees, but they’re being replaced by the 500k H1B visa holders who are mostly from China and India,” Moore said, citing figures of his own. “We need to END these SCAM programs NOW!”The rule that prompted Steube’s post was published by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the Federal Register on October 14 and took effect that day.The final rule “reaffirms and finalizes” an interim rule of October 30, 2025, which ended the practice of automatically extending employment authorisation documents (EADs) for people who had filed on time to renew them in certain categories.Previously, a timely renewal application could keep a work permit valid for up to 540 days while it was pending.DHS said ending the extensions “enhances benefit integrity and prioritises the proper vetting and screening of aliens before granting a new period of employment authorisation.”Commenters on the rule had warned that H-4 spouses of H-1B workers could face “unavoidable work gaps”. DHS acknowledged that affected dependents “may experience temporary lapses in employment authorisation.”The calls stand in contrast to a push from the other side of the aisle. Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey has renewed his call to lift per-country caps on employment-based green cards, citing a projected 179-year wait for Indian applicants.That figure is an estimate by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), an Arlington, Virginia-based research group, which also estimated that Indians make up 79 per cent of people waiting in the first three employment-based green card categories.