Trump administration red tape tangles up...

entry-level jobs offered to skilled foreigners. The lawyers say this violates the law governing H-1Bs, because it allows for visa holders to take entry-level jobs.

Several attorneys said they view the increase in challenges and focus on entrylevel jobs as a stealth campaign by the administration against the H-1B program in the absence of public regulatory changes or changes passed by Congress, which could be debated and decided in the open.

“One way to have an immigration policy that’s consistent with the policy that’s been articulated by the Trump administration is to put more scrutiny on H-1B cases,” said Cyrus Mehta, a New Yorkbased immigration attorney.

USCIS spokesman Robert C. Langston did not directly address the new trend identified by lawyers or the sharp spike in RFEs this year. In an email, he said the agency is applying “currently existing policy that interprets existing statutory and regulatory requirements to evaluate petitions.”

CLOSING LOOPHOLES

Partners HealthCare is a healthcare system that includes Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, two prestigious teaching hospitals for Harvard Medical School. It has received more than 50 RFEs from USCIS so far this year, compared to fewer than 15 all of last year in response to a similar number of H-1B petitions, said Anthony Pawelski, an immigration attorney who handles H-1B applications for Partners.