IRLI Files Public Comment Urging DHS to Rescind Radical Obama Administration Job-Stealing Rule

August 8, 2017

Protecting American workers and small businesses

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) filed a public comment (attached here) with the Citizenship and Immigration Services division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), urging DHS to rescind a radical rule promulgated by the outgoing Obama Administration. The rule (which has not yet taken effect) would allow the government to parole large numbers of self-described “international entrepreneurs” into the United States to set up and work in their own small businesses, without the visas or certifications required by federal law for permanent and temporary employment-based immigrants.

IRLI’s 21-page comment argues that the 2016 Obama International Entrepreneur (IE) Rule conflicts with multiple provisions of federal law that set quotas on the annual admission of foreign workers, and require carefully calibrated protections for both U.S. workers and U.S. small businesses. Parole is a narrow exception in immigration law that allows the government to admit aliens only for emergency and law enforcement purposes, on a case-by-case basis, and without any grant of legal immigration status.

“Our Congress has repeatedly tightened the parole laws after evidence of chronic abuses and unlawful activity,” commented IRLI Executive Director Dale L. Wilcox. “The Trump Administration immediately detected the massive loophole this Obama-era program would have created. We were encouraged when it delayed implementation this spring, and our public comment sets out in detail the many ways the IE Rule would have violated the law and harmed American workers and small businesses.”

Under the Rule, not only would thousands of aliens who did not qualify for an employment or investment-based visa be admitted, but their extended families would be granted work authorization without any authorization from Congress. Also, IRLI criticized the government’s economic analysis for “failing to document any verifiable net benefit to the U.S. economy [from the Rule] that would offset its adverse effects on the U.S. workforce.” IRLI exposed how the government’s analysis in promulgating the Rule relied on dubious studies by special interest groups whose members would hope to profit at the expense of hardworking American entrepreneurs and employers.

For additional information, contact: Jade Haney • 202-232-5590 • [email protected]