US House votes to tighten controls on visa-free travellers

American lawmakers have voted overwhelmingly to impose restrictions making it more difficult for visitors to Iraq, Syria and countries listed as supporting terrorism to travel visa-free to the United States.
The House of Representatives voted 407 to 19 yesterday in support of the Visa Waiver Program Improvement Act of 2015, a bill backed by the White House in the aftermath of the deadly attacks in Paris that were conducted by extremists who could have travelled to America without a visa.
It would bar people who travelled after March 1, 2011 to Iraq and Syria, as well as Iran and Sudan, from participating in the visa-free program, require the use of electronic passports for all participating countries and call for participating countries to share more intelligence data on suspected terrorists and criminals.

"In an abundance of caution, we will now require those individuals to apply for a visa and go through the formal visa screening process," said House Republican Candice Miller, the bill's main sponsor.
The Visa Waiver Program (VWP) is available to citizens of 38 countries, largely US allies and relatively stable developed democracies.
Many are in Europe, including France and Belgium, the home countries of several of the Paris attackers.

Created in 1986 to help facilitate travel to the US, the program has been a boon to the American economy.
"Yet no amount of economic stimulation is worth risking the lives of our constituents. And recent events around the world necessitate changes to the VWP in order to help ensure its safety," said House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte.

US officials say about 5,000 Europeans, including many from VWP nations, have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight with extremist groups like the Islamic State and pose an enhanced risk to the United States.
That would require employers to make a good faith effort
to recruit and hire American workers before bringing in visa workers and prohibit employers from replacing American workers or giving preference to visa holders when they are filling open positions, they said.
It would provide more authority to the Departments of Homeland Security and Labour to investigate fraud and abuse in the H-1B and L-1 programs.

Modifying existing H-1B wage requirements, and establish wage requirements for L-1 workers, the bill would provide visa holders with a list of rights before they enter the US so that they are better protected against mistreatment or underpayment of wages.
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) have endorsed the bill.
"We applaud [the] long-term commitment to addressing the glaring gaps in protections in our current skilled visa programs," AFL-CIO Government Affairs Department Director William Samuel wrote in support of the bill.
"These loopholes have resulted in the mistreatment of H-1B workers and US workers alike, and have led to the egregious displacement scandals that continue to make headlines and discredit these programs," he said.

"It is more than clear that the H-1B and L-1 visa programmes are being used by major companies across our economy to hire cheap, disposable workers in place of their American employees," IEEE president Peter Eckstein wrote in support of the bill.
"Reports of Americans being fired and replaced by non-Americans, who will never be invited to become Americans, can no longer be dismissed as mere 'anecdotes.' Rather, outsourcing companies dominate the H-1B and L-1 programs, annually costing America tens of thousands of good, middle-class jobs," he said.