Feds Hid White-Collar Outsourcing Program From the Public, Says Judge

Federal officials excluded the public when they created a program to help U.S. companies hire hundreds of thousands of foreign graduates in place of American graduates, a D.C. Appeals Court judge said February 20.

Law360.com reported the comment, which came during a hearing against the Optional Practical Training outsourcing program:

The judge also challenged [Justice Department lawyer Scott] Stewart … that the latest tweak represented the first time the government actually opened its considerations of the program to public comment. “The public wasn’t involved” in earlier considerations on statutory authority for the program, Judge Edwards told Stewart.

Federal law requires the public be allowed to comment when new regulations are created.

“I have claws up and down my back …. [the judge] was tough on me, but he wasn’t vicious,” said John Miano, the lawyer for the Immigration Reform Law Institute. On behalf of theWashington Alliance of Technology Workers, Miano is suing to shut down the federal “Optional Practical Training” program because the OPT program was illegally created.

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