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U.S. Lawmakers Want Temporary Work Visa Transparency

Bjoertvedt via Wikimedia Commons
Credit Bjoertvedt via Wikimedia Commons

A group of U.S. Senators and Representatives want to make temporary work visas public information. The lawmakers say it’ll help prevent human trafficking.

U.S. lawmakers introduced a bill Wednesday that would require a public reporting system for temporary, non-immigrant visas. A press release from the group says hiding this data not only hinders law enforcement’s efforts to crack down on human trafficking, but it also makes it harder for labor analysts to understand how the visas affect American jobs. U.S. Representative TedDeutchof Florida’s21 stDistrict says current visa programs leave gaps for human traffickers to advantage of. The measure would also create prevention programs to educate workers nationally and abroad.

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Ashley Tressel is a senior Communication and English student at Florida State University. Before WFSU, she interned at the Executive Office of the Governor, The Borgen Project, a national nonprofit for global poverty, wrote freelance for Carbonated.tv, a multimedia news service and served as managing editor for the FSU International Programs magazine, Nomadic Noles. After graduation, Ashley plans to embark on her journalism career somewhere in Colorado.