Court Halts Prevailing Wage Increase And H-1B Program Changes

On December 1, 2020, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California issued a decision that suspends the Department of Labor's prevailing wage increase that went into effect on October 8, 2020, and prevents the implementation of the Department of Homeland Security's proposed changes to the H-1B visa program, which were set to take effect on December 7, 2020. In the lawsuit called Chamber of Commerce of the U.S.A., et al. v. U.S. Dep't. of Homeland Security, et al., the decision sets aside the two H-1B related interim final rules that were published in October. The court based its decision on the agencies' failure to allow public comment before the rules became final, and found the failure to do so was not justified by the agencies' claim that it was to prevent public harm from the COVID-19 pandemic.