Sanders, Grassley introduce new guest visa restrictions

A Senate bill introduced Thursday would prohibit big companies that announce massive layoffs from subsequently hiring foreign workers to fill their ranks.

The Employ America Act, sponsored by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), is an attempt to combat what both lawmakers said was an obvious attempt by major firms to capitalize on cheap labor using the guest visa program during this year's economic downturn.

"Our foreign guest worker programs are in place to fill employment needs where there is a shortage of American workers, not as a subterfuge to hire cheap labor," Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement on Thursday.

"With the unemployment rate over 10 percent, companies that undertake mass layoffs shouldn’t need to hire foreign guest workers when there are plenty of qualified Americans looking for jobs,” he added.

Sanders and Grassley's bill builds off another, similar guest visa proposal they introduced earlier this year as part of the federal stimulus program. That provision prevents firms that received any portion of the Troubled Asset Relief Program from replacing laid-off Americans with guest-visa authorized workers.

Their new effort, however, is far more expansive.

According to a draft version of the bill, the Department of Homeland Security would not be allowed to authorize work visas to foreigners who were about to seek employment at firms that have conducted a mass layoff within the past 30 days.

The bill reportedly defines a mass layoff of as a reduction of at least 500 employees at larger firms, or 50 to 499 employees at firms where those who were offered pink slips comprise 33 percent of the original workforce.

“With the unemployment rate still climbing and millions of people looking for work, we have a responsibility to ensure that companies do not use the temporary guest-worker program to replace American workers with cheaper labor from overseas,” Sanders said.