Anti H-1B Visa Posters Plastered in San Francisco Bay Area

A Washington D.C.-based group has bought advertisement space in San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) stations to plaster anti H-1B visa posters until April.

The posters, put up by the Progressives for Immigration Reform group, target the local technology professionals and try to incite them against H-1B visa workers. The posters have been put up right before the H-1B visa filing season begins.

“Your companies think you are expensive, undeserving & expendable,” say the ads. “Congress, fix H-1B law so companies must seek & hire U.S. workers!”

The ad campaign cost $80,000, according to a spokesperson for BART, where the ads were posted. The group has bought 250 panel ads and 100 smaller in-train ads, which will be seen on both sides of the Bay for about one month, from March to April.

“BART does not endorse these ads,” the transportation agency said in a statement to the Mercury News. “BART is a safe and welcoming system for all people.” But the messaging complies with free speech laws, the agency said.

“BART must post these ads to comply with the law,” the agency said. “Court rulings reinforce the fact that we can’t deny the ads.”

Kevin Lynn, executive director at Progressives for Immigration Reform, told Buzzfeed that the campaign is about protecting American jobs. “The idea is to make immigration work for the citizens as a whole,” said Lynn.“That’s what we’ve done for a long time, but it’s not doing that now.”

Lynn told Mercury News, “My hope is that the ads will be successful in not only informing on the H-1B program but driving discussions that will lead to a movement that will unite tech workers to end the predatory aspects of the program.”

This latest onslaught against the H-1B program adds to a negative bias it already faces. Indian tech companies have been sued for replacing American workers with H-1b workers. India-based Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and New Jersey-based Cognizant Technology Solutions have been sued by former disgruntled employees for replacing them with “less qualified” South Asian workers.

The government has also made it more difficult for people to get an H-1B visa. The U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) said on Feb. 22 that detailed documentation would be necessary to show that those given the visa for highly skilled people have specific assignments in a specialty occupation. They would also have to establish that the assignments will be for the entire period that they hold the visa for.

Awful, anti-immigrant ads in the BART station today. Where can I donate to support the exact opposite of this? 😞 pic.twitter.com/24x23OmV8S

— Don McCurdy (@donrmccurdy) March 16, 2018