DPE Letter Opposing DHS's Proposed H-1B Fee
September 24, 2026
The Honorable Markwayne Mullin
Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
2707 Martin Luther King Jr Ave SE
Washington, DC 20528
Re: Fee for Certain H-1B Petitions (DHS Docket No. USCIS-2026-0298)
Dear Secretary Mullin,
On behalf of the 24 national unions in the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), I appreciate the opportunity to respond to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding “Fee for Certain H-1B Petitions” (DHS Docket No. USCIS-2026-0298).
The NPRM is directly relevant to DPE’s affiliate unions, which represent over four million professional, technical, and other highly skilled workers. Members of DPE’s unions include U.S. citizens, permanent residents, H-1B beneficiaries, and workers who aspire to participate in the H-1B program. DPE’s response to the NPRM, as well as its long-time advocacy for fundamental reforms to the H-1B visa program is informed by the experiences of these union professionals.
The H-1B program plays an important role in the economy by attracting skilled talent, including members of our unions, to the United States. However, employers currently use the program to lower labor costs, despite Congress’s intent to permit U.S. employers to hire people from abroad on H-1B visas when they cannot find qualified, available U.S. professionals. Employers can replace U.S. professionals with H-1B workers who are paid below-market wages in employment arrangements where the employer controls their ability to live and work in the United States. Today, the vast majority of H-1B visas go to companies engaged in outsourcing and offshoring and most H-1B workers earn wages below the median (the 50th percentile) for their occupation and area.
DPE advocates for fixing the broken H-1B visa program through lasting, durable reforms. The bipartisan H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act would greatly improve the H-1B visa program by lifting wages, promoting worker empowerment, and ensuring that employees can exercise their workplace rights free of retaliation or coercion. Notably, the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act also would ensure the Department of Labor (DOL) has the funding and ability to protect the rights of both U.S. professionals and people working on H-1B visas. DPE also supports the Keep STEM Talent Act, bipartisan legislation that offers in-demand graduates a high-road alternative to the H-1B and other precarious, temporary work visas, while enhancing America’s global leadership. The Administration should help to champion both bills through Congress.
DPE also believes that administrative actions can offer important steps to fixing the broken H-1B visa program. Last year, for instance, DPE wrote to your predecessor in support of adopting a wage-based visa allocation process that prioritizes graduates of U.S. colleges and universities. Earlier this year, DPE wrote to Acting Labor Secretary Sonderling in support of raising the H-1B program’s minimum wage to the median wage for an occupation and area.
Unlike modernizing the visa allocation process and raising the prevailing wage rates, the present NPRM is unlikely to improve standards for professionals. The outsourcing and offshoring companies that are the top H-1B users have shown an ability to adapt their business models and low-road compensation plans to fee increases. That is likely because H-1B employers can still pay H-1B beneficiaries below-market wages and amortize the one time fee over multiple years. A wage floor cannot be amortized in the same way, which is why wage-based reforms are more likely to change employer behavior than a single, flat fee. H-1B employers also can recoup the cost of the fee at the expense of H-1B workers through lower starting wages, longer hours and poorer working conditions, especially when workers have a credible fear that speaking up could result in deportation under this Administration's approach to immigration enforcement. (See, for instance, ICE’s January 31, 2025, press release announcing the arrest of seven Philadelphia car workers who reported being exploited by their employer, illustrative of the broader enforcement climate that makes any worker, including those on H-1B visas, hesitant to report labor violations.)
DPE therefore respectfully urges the Administration to withdraw the proposed $103,265 fee and instead focus on other actions that will improve the H-1B program for workers. Funding and staffing should be returned to DOL through the appropriations process. (DPE recognizes that this NPRM proposes directing a portion of the fee revenue to DOL, including for the Wage and Hour Division. But the proposed fee can be redirected by future rulemaking, and it does not carry the same statutory permanence as a congressional appropriation or legislation like the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act.) H-1B workers should be able to change jobs more easily and self-petition for permanent status. Outsourced work arrangements where H-1B workers are assigned to third party job sites should be prohibited. Employers who violate labor and employment laws should be barred from the H-1B and other temporary work visa programs. Protections, including work authorization, should be provided to noncitizen workers who blow the whistle on employers’ violations of labor and employment law. Foreign labor recruiters should be regulated and prohibited from charging fees to workers.
In closing, union professionals’ experiences demonstrate that the proposed H-1B fee is unlikely to reform the program for workers. Instead, ironically, workers themselves will likely feel the fee’s impact. The Administration can best address misuse of the H-1B visa program by securing needed resources for DOL through the appropriations process and passage of the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act and the Keep STEM Talent Act. DPE also continues to insist that the Administration do more to protect labor standards for all professionals.
If you have any questions, please contact me or DPE Assistant to the President/Legislative Director, Michael Wasser at mwasser@dpeaflcio.org.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Dorning, President