During Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, the State Department spent millions outsourcing tech jobs and promoted a loophole around guest-worker visas.
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2010 spent millions of taxpayer money on outsourcing IT jobs to Armenia and Sri Lanka. A state department document states, “[USAID] is an independent federal agency that receives overall foreign policy guidance from the Secretary of State.”
One 2010 USAID program spent $10 million on a program to train up to 3,000 IT specialists in Sri Lanka. It was a joint-effort with companies which also spent $26 million. USAID would train the workers in programming and the English language.
A similar program that same year in Armenia had USAID working with technology corporation Oracle, one of the biggest immigration lobbyists, to help the IT sector in Armenia.
In 2004, Clinton said, “I do not think outsourcing American jobs is a new kind of trade . . . and I certainly do not believe it is a good thing.” In 2012, she spoke more highly of outsourcing to an Indian audience and said it has benefited many parts of the United States.
Clinton’s state department in 2010, a year after she became secretary of state, promoted a loophole to help foreigners get around the H-1B visa process. They have since removed the information from their India embassy website but it can be found on internet archives. (RELATED: Clinton Spokesman: ‘I Don’t Submit’ To Idea That Immigrants Lower Wages Of American Workers)
The loophole allowed people with B1 or B1/B2 tourist visas to work in the United States. The requirements said they could use the tourist visa to perform H-1B level jobs (technical or highly specialized work). The requirements to be able to do this were a college degree, a claim to plan to do H-1B level work, and being paid by a foreign employer.
They would only be able to work in the United States for a temporary amount of time, like H-1B level visas. The loophole allowed the state department to skirt caps on the amount of H-1B visas. In the 2015 book Sold Out, John Miano wrote, “Exploiting the B-1 program to get around H-1B has become so commonplace, it has earned its own acronym in the immigration lawyer and diplomatic community: ‘BILOH’ or ‘B-1 visa in lieu of H-1B.'”
“In the aftermath of the Infosys whistleblowers’ exposés (2010), the State Department quietly put its ‘BILOH’ (B-1 in lieu of H-1B) visa policy ‘under review,'” Miano continued. Miano, counsel at the Immigration Reform Law Institute, added that a “cable issued to all State Department personnel in June 2012 and October 2012 informed them that the BILOH policy ‘is under review,’ but ‘is still in effect until further notice.'”
Republican nominee Donald Trump plans to enact changes to the H-1B program to favor the American worker. Clinton does not wish to touch the visa program.
