In an effort to regulate the amount of immigrants into the country, Trump has blocked the usage of multiple different work visas. Steve Yale-Loehr, a law professor at Cornell University, calls it tThe largest crackdown of work visas that I’ve seen in my 35 years of practice”.
What We Know:
- On Monday, June 22nd, Trump signed a new bill which will restrict the usage of certain work visas within the United States. This ban will begin on June 24th and continue until at least January of 2021. It was made as a way to restrict the amount of immigrants coming in and out of the country amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
- The new order will ban a multitude of visas, including H-1B and H-2B visas, given to many computer programmers and other highly skilled workers. Others who will be affected by the new bill will be seasonal, hospitality workers, students on work-study programs, and au pairs. The order will also restrict US companies with global operations to transfer around foreign workers and their loved ones. The ban will not affect workers outside the US with valid visas.
- This is not the first executive order made by Trump restricting visas this year. Most notable was his ban in April which restricted the issuing of new work visas for 60 days. Officials say that these freezes and increased restrictions on the issuance of green cards could result in the United States keeping out almost 500,000 new immigrants.
- In addition to these bans, officials report Trump trying to convince the government to making permanent changes to immigration in order to give Americans a better chance at these jobs over immigrants seeking to enter the country.
- Trump describes the suspension of the visas as a way to ensure Americans are first in line for new jobs, though experts say this doesn’t reflect the reality of the situation. Immigration has always been a centerpoint of the Trump campaign. Since his campaign in 2016, where he promoted his “wall blocking Mexico”. Trump has also used this stance on immigrants to gain the votes of America across the country.
These new bans fail to even line up with the business interest of Trump, who has used H-2B to hire many seasonal employees for his hotels and resorts.
