CNS - Suit Over Guest-Worker Spouse Permits Tossed

CNS - Suit Over Guest-Worker Spouse Permits Tossed



(CN) — Tech workers challenging a Department of Homeland Security rule allowing the spouses of guest workers to apply for employment did not prove the spouses would compete with them in job hunts, a federal judge found, tossing the suit.

     Save Jobs USA, a group of former Southern California Edison computer workers replaced by foreign workers with H-1B guest-worker visas, sued Homeland Security in April 2015 to stop the rule from taking effect.

     The lawsuit, filed in D.C. federal court, challenged the agency's "Employment Authorization for Certain H-4 Dependent Spouses," which allows the spouses of H-1B visa holders to work. Save Jobs claimed the rule would further competition for workers in the tech field, who already struggle to gain employment in the face of foreign workers.

     U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan declined to stop the policy in May 2015, finding that Save Jobs failed to show its members would suffer harm with the rule's implementation.