The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.Arguing that foreigners hurt American workers by competing for jobs and driving down wages, the Trump administration has tightened the noose around the H-1B visa programme.In his testimony on May 2, Acosta said, "In FY 2020, the Department's budget includes USD 160 million to continue our expansion of apprenticeship programmes, along with a proposal to increase H-1B fee revenues to fund additional apprenticeship activities. This brings the total investment to USD 202.5 million, USD 57.7 million coming from the private sector, he said. There are about 650,000 H-1B visa foreign workers in the US at any given moment, it added. "Let's put our citizens first and protect US workers and wages. Hard-working and highly-skilled American men and women share their stories about H-1B visa fraud and abuse," Republican Congressman from Arizona Paul Gosar said.

Source: Economic Times May 07, 2019 04:59 UTC