During last week's GOP debate, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) called the actions of employers who fire American workers and replace them with H-1B foreign workers "illegal". The Washington Post has fact-checked Rubio's statement and gave the comments three Pinocchios, or the equivalence of a "mostly false", writing "Rubio's characterization is not accurate."
During the debate, Rubio said:
"It is illegal now under that program [H-1B visa] to use it to replace American workers. Under that program, you have to prove not only that you’re not replacing Americans, but that you’ve tried to hire Americans. And if a company is caught abusing that process, they should never be allowed to use it again."
As NumbersUSA noted last week, the Washington Post highlights the fact that only H-1B dependent employers are required to prove that they tried to first recruit American workers before using the H-1B visa program.
"There is a 'no displacement' requirement and a recruiting requirement, as Rubio said. But these requirements apply to 'H-1B dependent' employers that have a large number of H-1B workers (for example, a company of 51 or more full-time employees is considered H-1B-dependent if 15 percent or more of its workforce are H-1B workers). Employers that are not deemed H-1B-dependent are not subject to this requirement.
"H-1B dependent companies are not allowed to lay off U.S. workers without a valid reason, then replace them with an H-1B worker to do essentially the same job with the same core responsibilities.
"This requirement doesn’t apply if the foreign worker is paid at least $60,000 per year, or has a relevant master’s or higher degree. And most H-1B workers fit that bill, making it largely irrelevant."
-- Washington Post, "Marco Rubio’s claim that it’s ‘illegal’ to replace American workers using H-1B visas"
Rubio dropped out of the race for the GOP nomination on Tuesday after he lost his home state to Donald Trump. A blog from NumbersUSA President Roy Beck charts Rubio's decline since joining the Senate Gang of 8 in 2013, which pushed more amnesty and increased legal immigration.
"As a former member of the Gang of Eight, Rubio really should know better than to make a sloppy statement like this."
-- Washington Post
You can read the full article here.
