Infosys, TCS and Cognizant cut H-1B lottery registrations as Trump tightens US visa rules economictimes.indiatimes.com…

🚨 NEARLY 1 MILLION H-1B AND L-1 WORKERS IN AMERICA. AND ORGANIZED LABOR IS SOUNDING THE ALARM. THIS ISN’T COMING FROM AN ANTI-IMMIGRATION ORGANIZATION. It’s coming from an AFL-CIO-affiliated labor organization representing more than 4 MILLION union members. Its February 2026 report reveals: • H-1B: Approximately 600,000 workers • L-1: An estimated 310,000–337,000 workers • COMBINED: 910,000–937,000 WHAT IS L-1? L-1 visas allow multinational companies to transfer employees from overseas offices into their U.S. operations. • L-1A: Executives and managers • L-1B: Workers with specialized company knowledge And here’s what most Americans don’t realize. ① L-1 has NO annual numerical cap. ② L-1 has NO occupational prevailing-wage requirement. ③ Most H-1B employers aren’t required to recruit qualified Americans first. ④ In FY2019, 60% of H-1B positions were assigned the two lowest prevailing-wage levels. ⑤ In 2022, nearly 40% of cap-subject H-1B visas went to just 30 employers, including 17 primarily outsourcing companies. ⑥ Disney replaced approximately 250 American IT workers in 2015 with workers employed by H-1B contractors. ⑦ UCSF eliminated nearly 100 IT positions in 2017 in an outsourcing arrangement involving H-1B workers. ⑧ Internal HCL documents cited in litigation estimated more than $95 MILLION annually in potential labor-cost savings from lower-paid H-1B workers. ⑨ The report documents cases of American workers being required to TRAIN their foreign replacements before receiving severance. ⑩ L-1 employment has far less public wage transparency than H-1B, making oversight particularly difficult. And what does organized labor want? • Recruit qualified Americans first. • Prevent displacement of American workers. • Strengthen wage requirements for H-1B and L-1. • Increase enforcement and accountability. For years, the debate has focused almost exclusively on H-1B. But there’s another enormous guest-worker program operating with fewer wage safeguards, no annual cap, and significantly less transparency. And now organized labor is raising concerns about BOTH. This isn’t simply an immigration debate. It’s about American jobs, wages, outsourcing, and whether employers should have to demonstrate a genuine labor shortage before bringing foreign workers into the country. Source: Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO, February 11, 2026. dpeaflcio.org/factsheets/gue…