Now 174 Indian Nationals Take Donald Trump To Court Over H1-B Visa Suspension Order

Weeks after he suspended H1-B Visas for six months, a group of 174 Indian nationals, including seven minors, has filed a lawsuit against the recent presidential proclamation that would prevent them from entering the United States or a visa would not be issued to them.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson at the US District Court in the District of Columbia issued summonses on Wednesday to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad F Wolf, along with Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia.

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¡°The proclamation 10052¡¯s H-1B/H-4 visa ban hurts the United States¡¯ economy, separates families and defies the Congress. While the two former points render it unseemly, the latter point renders it unlawful,¡± said the lawsuit filed by lawyer Wasden Banias on behalf of the 174 Indian nationals.

The lawsuit seeks an order declaring the presidential proclamation restriction on issuing new H-1B or H4 visas or admitting new H-1B or H-4 visa holders as unlawful. It also urges the court to compel the Department of State to issue decisions on pending requests for H-1B and H-4 visas.

Amid a worsening job crisis in the United States in and election year, President Trump had on June 22 signed an executive order Trump temporarily suspended issuing of H-1B work visas till the end of the year.

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While this was not specifically targeted at any country, Indias was the worst affected by the decision by Trump.

Many Indian and some US companies that act as subcontractors sponsoring workers on H-1B visas and deputing them once they are in the US to work elsewhere could see their business model hit.

According to some estimates, over three-to-four lakh H-1B visa workers in the US are employed by Indian IT firms like Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and Cognizant.

Indians are the single largest group of H1-B visa-holders accounting for nearly 74 per cent of the 85,000 annual H-1B visas given from the lottery system.

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The Trump administration had made it clear that the order will not affect those already in the US on the H-1B and the other work visa categories being put on pause.

Forbes, which first reported the lawsuit filed by the Indian nationals, said the complaint points out that the Congress specified the rules under which H-1B visa holders could work in the US and balanced the interests of US workers and employers.

¡°The complaint seeks to protect H-1B professionals, including those who have passed the labor certification process and possess approved immigrant petitions. Such individuals are waiting for their priority date to obtain permanent residence, a wait that can take many years for Indian nationals,¡± Forbes reported.