Several guest-worker programs will be halted starting Wednesday under a proclamation signed by President Trump that will add another layer of sweeping restrictions to an immigration system the administration has worked to overhaul both during and before the pandemic.
The order, which is slated to last until the end of the year, will suspend H-1B visas for those in specialized fields like the technology sector and most H-2B visas for non-agricultural seasonal workers. The other programs that will be restricted are cultural exchange J-1 visas for au pairs and other short-term workers; visas for spouses of H-1B and H-2B holders; and L visas for companies to relocate employees to the U.S.
Professors and scholars will be excluded from the J-1 visa restrictions and prospective H-2B visa holders looking to work in the food processing industry will not be affected by the presidential directive. The proclamation does not affect applicants already in the U.S. or those abroad who have already been issued a visa.
During a call with reporters Monday afternoon, a senior administration official said the new order is part of a multi-faceted strategy to prevent prospective immigrants and foreign workers from competing with Americans in the labor market. "President Trump is focusing on getting Americans back to work as quickly as possible after we've suffered this hit to our economy," the official said, describing an "America first recovery."
Over 20 million people in the U.S. were receiving unemployment benefits as of the week ending June 13, according to the Department of Labor.
Mr. Trump also announced Monday an extension of another set of visa restrictions he issued in April, also in response to the economic downturn caused by the pandemic. Along with pausing the diversity green card lottery, the April proclamation suspended certain visas for foreigners seeking to move to the U.S. permanently through petitions from their family members or prospective employers.
The White House estimates that both proclamations will free up 525,000 jobs by the end of the year, according to the senior administration official. An analysis by the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute estimates that about 325,000 prospective temporary workers and immigrants could be denied entry through December under the two restrictions. The immediate impact of the measure may be limited, however, since the State Department stopped routine visa services in March and has yet to resume them.
In addition to the proclamation, the senior administration official said Mr. Trump instructed him and other advisers to implement major changes to the H-1B program, which currently has an annual cap of 85,000 visas that are awarded through a lottery system. The official said the administration will move to scrap the lottery and replace it with a system in which the applicants with the highest salary offers receive the allotted visas.
"This will drive both the wage level and the skill level of the H-1B applicants up," the official said. "It will eliminate competition with Americans."
Other measures include an unpublished regulation that the official said would make it more difficult for companies to replace U.S. labor with newly arrived workers, who are typically paid lower wages. The Department of Labor has also been directed by Mr. Trump to set higher wages for H-1B holders and to probe potential abuses in the program, the senior administration official added.
The administration on Monday also published the final version of a regulation that will render most border-crossers seeking asylum ineligible for work authorization. Under the rule, which is expected to take effect in late August, work permits will not be available to asylum-seekers who crossed the border illegally or to those convicted of certain crimes, like driving under the influence.
For the past three years, the Trump administration has argued that most migrants who trek to the southern border file meritless asylum claim to gain easy entry into the U.S. in search of job opportunities.
Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst for the Migration Policy Institute, said there are legitimate concerns about some of the guest worker programs — including the ones for H-1B and J-1 visas. But she said the president's proclamation will hurt U.S. companies that rely on foreign workers and not necessarily prompt them to hire American nationals.
"It's definitely overdue that we have an examination of these programs and their effect on the U.S. job market, but that doesn't mean that wholesale suspending them suddenly is going to be beneficial to U.S. workers — and it is certainly not going to be beneficial to employers," Pierce told CBS News.
Using the coronavirus as the chief justification, the Trump administration is making major policy changes that would have been difficult to implement unilaterally before the pandemic, Pierce said.
"I don't think that the administration would get away with this if it weren't for the pandemic," she said.
On Monday, President Trump issued a proclamation suspending a range of visa programs — including the guest worker visas, like the H-1B, commonly used by tech companies to attract overseas talent. The new restrictions apply primarily to new visa applicants or H1-B holders who are currently out of the country.
A range of tech companies and industry groups have already pushed back against the proclamation, casting the order as a threat to the tech industry and US innovation more broadly.
In a statement to The Verge, Google emphasized the contributions of immigrants to American public life, without directly addressing the new restrictions.
“Immigrants have not only fueled technological breakthroughs and created new businesses and jobs but have also enriched American life,” said Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda. “America’s continued success depends on companies having access to the best talent from around the world. Particularly now, we need that talent to help contribute to America’s economic recovery.”
Google is one of the top sponsors of H-1B visas among large tech companies, filing more than 6,500 applications for guest worker visas in 2019.
The program, which is capped at 85,000 workers nationally, has been controversial for a number of reasons. A recent OneZero report found that H-1B workers were more vulnerable to discrimination because their immigration status was tied to employment, which left them “feeling like an underclass.”
The Information Technology Industry Council — an industry group that includes nearly every major tech company, including Google — emphasized the H-1B visa’s importance in maintaining the industry’s competitive edge.
“Today’s executive action stands to upend the ability of U.S. employers — in the tech sector and beyond — to hire the men and women they need to strengthen their workforce, repower the economy, and drive innovation,” the group said in a statement. “At a critical time for the U.S. economy, it will have a dangerous impact on the economic recovery and growth for years to come.”
The Internet Association — whose members include Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Google — took a similar line. “The diverse and accomplished H-1B visa holders in the U.S. create American jobs and help our economy grow,” the group said in a statement. “All industries benefit from a visa system that allows U.S. companies to attract the best and brightest no matter where they’re from.”
In 2017, the Trump administration suspended fast processing of H-1B visas, supposedly as a way to reduce overall wait times. A month later, the White House ordered a broad review of the program, although the results of the review were never made public. Monday’s order was described as a response to the economic damage wrought by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Trump signed an executive order temporarily preventing access to several employment-based visas, affecting hundreds of thousands of people seeking to work in the U.S.— Bloomberg QuickTake (@QuickTake) June 23, 2020
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