In a big relief for foreign workers in the US technology sector, a judge ruled that spouses of H-1 B visa holders can now work in the United States.
The decision was made by US District Judge Tanya Chutkan as he dismissed a lawsuit filed by Save Jobs USA, which had approached the court to revoke the Obama-era regulation that gave employment authorisation cards to spouses of certain categories of H-1 B visa holders.
Save Jobs USA is an organisation that consists of IT workers who claim they lost their jobs to H-1 B workers.
Tech giants such as Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft opposed the lawsuit. The US has so far issued nearly 1,00, 000 work authorizations to spouses of H-1 B workers.
According to a report by PTI, Judge Chutkan stated that the primary argument of Save Jobs USA was that Congress had not granted the Department of Homeland Security authority to allow foreign nationals, like H- 4 visa holders, to work during their stay in the United States.
She wrote that contention runs headlong into the text of the Immigration and Nationality Act, decades of executive-branch practice, and the explicit and implicit congressional ratification of that practice.
The judge said that Congress has knowingly empowered the US government to authorise employment as a permissible condition of an H- 4 spouse's stay in the United States.
Judge Chutkan wrote in the ruling that the Department of Homeland Security and its predecessors have authorised employment not only for students, but also for their spouses and dependents.
Save Jobs USA plans to appeal the decision to allow H- 1 B spouses to work and support their families, as noted by Ajay Bhutoria, a prominent community leader and advocate for immigrant rights.
Allowing H-1 B spouses to work is not just a matter of economic fairness, but it is also a matter of family unity and stability. According to the news agency's report, I applaud the decision of the court, and I hope that this is just the beginning of a more compassionate and equitable immigration system.
The H-1 B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees a year from countries like China and India.