Comment from Doe, John

Subject: Public Comment on Regulatory Gaps Regarding Citizenship Status Discrimination, Data Transparency, and Whistleblower Retaliation To Whom It May Concern, This comment addresses critical systemic vulnerabilities in the current federal labor certification and corporate compliance frameworks. Specifically, the existing regulations fail to prevent citizenship status discrimination under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), obscure critical data necessary for public accountability, and critically fail to protect whistleblowers—particularly cleared professionals and naturalized citizens—who report these violations. 1. The Systemic Exploit in Labor Certification Current Department of Labor (DOL) and USCIS regulations allow corporations operating within the U.S. to bypass domestic worker protections through nominal compliance. The required labor certification (PERM) processes are frequently manipulated. Law firms and hiring managers routinely construct highly restrictive job advertisements—often placed in the least accessible venues—with no genuine intent to hire a U.S. citizen. This creates a system where hiring decisions are based on managerial preference and the exploitation of visa programs rather than the legal obligations of companies incorporated in the U.S. and receiving federal tax benefits. This functionally subverts the intent of federal employment law and displaces qualified American workers, including long-term unemployed individuals, veterans, and professionals over 40. 2. The Data Transparency Deficit When citizens attempt to hold these corporations accountable, they are blocked by a lack of auditable data. Existing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) mechanisms fail to provide the transparency required to prove discriminatory patterns. A FOIA request to USCIS or DOL regarding a specific labor application only yields the application submitted by the legal counsel. Crucially, this data excludes the demographics of the foreign national hired and the metadata of the U.S. citizens who were rejected. Without disclosure of how many U.S. citizens applied, or whether those citizens belonged to protected categories (e.g., age, veteran status, or disability), citizens have no mechanism to prove citizenship status discrimination. The regulation currently shields the violator by withholding the very data required to enforce the law. 3. The Whistleblower Crisis for Cleared Professionals The most catastrophic failure of the current regulation is its lack of clear, actionable protections for those who report these violations. As a naturalized U.S. citizen, I took an oath to uphold the laws of this country. However, the current framework severely penalizes citizens who actually do so. When professionals—particularly those holding a Public Trust or other security clearances—witness and report systemic discrimination or corporate fraud, the reporting mechanisms are actively dangerous to use. Having followed the legally prescribed steps to report discrimination, I was subjected to severe retaliation. This included the deliberate stripping of health insurance benefits while recovering from a life-threatening bout of COVID-19, compounding my physical vulnerabilities. The current regulations are entirely silent on how U.S. citizens holding clearance are expected to report structural hiring fraud without risking devastating personal, financial, and medical retaliation. A regulatory system that demands compliance but allows corporations to destroy the lives of those who report violations is functionally broken. Conclusion and Regulatory Request A system without transparency or whistleblower protection is not a regulatory framework; it is a shield for corporate misconduct. I urge the agency to amend current regulations to require: Full demographic disclosure of applicant pools in labor certification FOIA requests to allow for the auditing of protected class discrimination. The establishment of secure, retaliatory-proof reporting channels specifically designed for cleared professionals and federal contractors. Immediate, enforceable penalties for corporations that retaliate against citizens reporting citizenship status discrimination under the INA.