New York Times
By Liz Robbins
March 9, 2016
Shruthi
Aramandla’s education and her job are geared to New York City’s
skyline. She did not want to go back to her native India and start
all over again.
Ms.
Aramandla, 24, who has a master’s degree from the Tandon School of
Engineering at New York University, has
been waiting anxiously for the federal government to publish its new
rule on a foreign-worker training program so she would know whether she
could stay longer — and perhaps one day permanently — in the United
States.
The
federal government will publish the rule on Friday, saying that
international students earning degrees in
science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields in the United
States will now be eligible to stay for three years of on-the-job
training. This is seven months longer than under the 2008 rule it
replaces for the STEM Optional Practical Training program,
known as OPT. The new rule will take effect on May 10.
Beyond
offering graduates more experience in their fields, the extension
serves another purpose. “If my work
visa gets denied this year, I still have two more opportunities to
apply, and I can keep working within the country,” said Ms. Aramandla,
who wanted to be an engineer since she was 10, growing up in Chennai,
India. She graduated from N.Y.U. in May; under the
previous 29-month rule, she would have been able to stay only through
October 2017.
Ms.
Aramandla will apply in April for a visa, known as an H-1B, for
so-called skilled foreign workers. But Congress
caps those yearly at 65,000, with an additional 20,000 slots for
graduates with advanced degrees like Ms. Aramandla. The government
received nearly four times as many applications for those visas as were
accepted in last year’s lottery.
This
rule is yet another flash point in the controversy over immigration
reform. Industry leaders who say they
are desperate for skilled talent and those defending the rights of
American workers see the training program’s extension as an end-around
to stalled reform. But that is all they agree upon.
“It’s
an ongoing assault on American workers,” said John Miano, a lawyer for a
technology workers’ union in Washington
State, whose lawsuit last summer was what forced the government to
vacate the previous rule and create a new one, this time for public
comment.
“They are just trying to double down on what they’re doing before,” he said of the government. “‘O.K., you didn’t
like 29 months? We’ll make it 36 months.’”
Mr.
Miano says his group, the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, is
still arguing the legality of the program in an appeal. The next
hearing will be in May at the United States Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia.
The
government posted a similar version of the rule in the federal register
in October, drawing more than 50,500 comments. (Death threats
to President Obama were removed, officials said.) A large number of
commenters who said they were foreign students supported the rule. But
there were also comments from people who identified themselves as
unemployed technology workers or concerned citizens
who believed the government “was destroying this country,” and thought
that it showed the government was “standing with illegals.”
“I hope you rip it up,” one commenter said.
The new rule states directly that “a STEM OPT student would not replace a full- or part-time, temporary or permanent
U.S. worker,” and that the salary offered would “be commensurate” to American workers.
Officials with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said they tried to tighten training programs, mandate
oversight of employers and make sure that the students come from accredited universities in an effort to prevent fraud.
“In our mind, it enhances training and puts safeguards in to make sure that if you are an employer that you are
not unfairly disadvantaging U.S. workers,” Rachel Canty, deputy director for the agency’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program.
The agency said it would provide help sessions for eligible students, employers and academic institution on its
website on Friday.
Ms.
Aramandla, who works for Loring Consulting Engineers and designs
heating, ventilation and air-conditioning
systems for schools in New York, said her training would not be
applicable in India, nor would she find the same work environment there;
as a woman in India, she feels she would not be as respected as she is
in the United States.
Michael DesRochers, the president of Loring, said Ms. Aramandla was an integral employee in his technical work
force, which is 7 percent foreign.
“The labor market is tight,” Mr. DesRochers said. “We don’t look at it as the international students are taking
away American opportunities. We feel we’re offering to all.”
His
company’s work may intersect again with the new rule: Recently, his
engineers replaced the ventilation and mechanical systems for the
United States Supreme Court.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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