Last week, Landmark filed a brief asking the Supreme Court to hear Savejobs USA v. Department of Homeland Security. We are urging the Court to accept this case and reverse a lower court’s ruling permitting unelected federal bureaucrats at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to rewrite our nation’s immigration laws. 

During the Biden administration, DHS took the unprecedented step of extending employment privileges to H-4 visa holders while in the United States. H-4 visas are issued to the spouses of H1-B visa holders and, until recently, have never been permitted to seek employment. This is a usurpation of power by DHS that circumvents the limits Congress has set on the number of nonresident alien workers.   

Congress established the H-1B Visa program in 1990 to allow highly skilled nonimmigrant residents to work in the United States. Access to H-1B visas is tightly regulated to ensure that the program does not unduly limit job prospects for American citizens. Congress sets the number of H1-B visas that are distributed annually.  The number of H1-B visa holders is carefully calibrated by Congress to balance the private sector’s needs for skilled employees with the adverse employment effects of importing foreign workers into the domestic market. By allowing H-4 visa holders to seek employment, DHS unilaterally doubled the pool of potential nonresident workers and sidestepped Congress’ constitutional role in setting immigration policy.  

Save Jobs USA challenged this policy in the DC Circuit, which ruled in favor of DHS.  Save Jobs USA is asking the Supreme Court to accept the case and overrule the DC Circuit.   

Landmark’s brief argues that DHS’s improper expansion of employment privileges to nonresident aliens admitted to the country under the H-4 visa program is inconsistent with our immigration laws and a breach of constitutional separation of powers.  

Read our full brief here.