While the rest of the country focuses on illegal immigration from south of the border, an immigration story of a different kind is happening inside the U.S. and in poor countries throughout the world.  The use of H1B and H2B visas to bring in foreign workers in the tech and science fields and as laborers and in manufacturing, respectively, has led to a huge underground business of defrauding hopeful immigrants out of thousands of dollars and is largely unregulated by Homeland Security.  One such scam shop was recently exposed but it is only one of thousands operating around the world.  The wait for an H1B visa is long and the process arduous.  Yet the applicants wait patiently for the chance to come work in the United States and positively contribute to the fabric of the nation.

Less well known than the tech focused H1B visas are H2B visas.  This visa category was used to bring in foreign workers on oil rigs and in factories.  Shady recruiters have moved to using this category to defraud the poor with promises of U.S. citizenship.  Recently, Indian workers protested in front of the Capitol after paying $20,000 to recruiters to secure their visas and a promised green card.  Such a practice is devestating for the workers and their families left back home trying to pay the heavy debts to local strongmen who loaned them the money.  The repercussions for the workers and their families are similar to those of Indian farmers who have been committing suicide in larger number after being unable to pay back loans.  These workers and their families may be facing such a situation.

The U.S. government should keep a registery of all fradulent recruiters and refuse to accept any documents submitted through them.  Recruiters should be required to pay a sizable fee to register with the government as a legitimate broker in order to stop such abuses.  Visas issued to workers should make the terms of the visa very clear and use the native language if possible to avoid any confusion.  Finally, any recruiters found to be in violation of such terms should face jail time and stiff penalties as well as being blacklisted to ensure they can never swindle future workers.  Finally, the most important piece of this puzzle is improving the conditions in the home countries so that the economy there can provide jobs and a rising standard of living.  These recruiters should not be allowed to engage in such trickery and implementing the above steps will go a long way to eradicating this deplorable practice.