Google joins 30 other tech companies to support the work visas for immigrant spouses

Taking to Twitter, Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google and Alphabet, wrote, "Google is proud to support our nation's immigrants. We joined 30 other companies to protect the H-4 EAD program which spurs innovation, creates jobs and opportunities, and helps families."

H-4 EAD programme provides work authorisation to over 90,000 H-4 visa-holders -- more than 90% of whom are women, stated Catherine Lacavera, Vice President, Legal, Google.

The tech companies argue that cancelling employment authorization for spouses would land families in financial difficulties as most make life choices like having children or purchasing homes taking into account the income from two jobs.

The issue surfaced following a lawsuit called Save Jobs USA vs US department of homeland security.

Save Jobs USA, a group of IT workers, filed the lawsuit in 2015, saying that they lost jobs to immigrant workers,

The suit was deferred as President Donald Trump's administration thought of revoking the H-4 work rule. However, the H-4 work programme was never closed.

Now both parties, the plaintiffs and President Joe Biden's administration, have sought summary judgment in the case.

Google filed a legal brief in the lawsuit.

After learning about concerns of its employees over the uncertainty of the work program, attorneys for Google spoke to the trade bodies including the Information Technology Industry Council and together recruited Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Corp, Pinterest Inc, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other companies to sign onto the filing, two sources familiar with the discussions said, stated a Reuters report

"H-4 EAD authorizations for the spouses of high-skilled workers help American companies recruit and retain the world's best talent. Today we led a business coalition filing on behalf of 30 companies to preserve & protect the program," tweeted Kent Walker, Senior Vice President, Global Affairs, Google.

"It doesn't make sense to welcome a person to the US to work but make it harder for their spouse to work. That hurts their family and hurts our economy now and in the future," added Walker.

A fair immigration system is necessary to preserve America's laudable history of welcoming people from different places and to fuel a virtuous cycle of innovation. Unfortunately, an impending court case is putting both at risk at the most inopportune moment, read  Lacavera's statement.

The lawsuit seeks to make the spouse of the high-skilled talent incapable of working in the United States.

"We support a system that offers opportunities to highly-skilled workers and their families, and cements the citizenship of Dreamers, rather than miring immigrants in decade-long application backlogs," said Lacavera.

"As an immigrant myself, I have been the beneficiary of a welcoming America and I hope we can ensure that same welcome for future immigrants by preserving the H-4 EAD program. Ending this program would hurt families and undercut the US economy at a critical moment," she asserted.