President Trump is expected to sign an expansion of immigration
restrictions in the coming days in response to the economic
downturn from the coronavirus pandemic -- an order that will reportedly suspend
a number of guest worker programs.
Trump signed an order in April suspending
some forms of immigration, citing
“the impact of foreign workers on the United
States labor market, particularly in an environment of high domestic
unemployment and depressed demand for labor” as a reason for the
restriction, as well as pressures on health care and other factors.
That order suspended,
for 60 days, green cards for immigrants who are currently outside the U.S. and
do not already have a valid immigrant visa. While it was criticized by
Democrats and immigration activists for being part of an “anti-immigrant
agenda,” it also left many restrictionists unhappy because it did not target
temporary guest work visas such as the H-1B and H-2B programs, which
give visas for the tech and seasonal industries, respectively.
Hawks say that those
visas are used to replace American workers with cheaper labor at a time of
sky-high unemployment, while business groups counter that such labor is
needed to fuel an economic recovery.
Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said in April that
“additional steps” were likely before the order expires, which will be in
the coming days.
NPR first
reported Saturday that the order could be signed as soon as Saturday evening,
and will bar H-1B and H-2B visas, as well as L-1 visas for business executives
and J-1 visas for teaching and work-exchange programs, until the end of the
year. A source familiar with discussions about the order confirmed
the details to Fox News.
Such an order would reflect the priorities of groups that call
for lower levels of immigration, such as the Federation of American Immigration
Reform (FAIR), who wrote to Trump in May asking
for limits on guestworker programs.
"These visas --
notably H-1B, H-2A, H-2B, L-1 and J-1 -- are unnecessary given the
economic conditions facing American households," FAIR President Dan Stein
said. (H-2A visas, for temporary agricultural workers, are not believed to be
targeted by the order.)
The order is also
expected to include a number of exceptions amid warnings from business
groups that an order too strict will affect the economic recovery.
“As the economy rebounds, American businesses will need assurances that they can meet all their workforce needs. To that end, it is crucial that they have access to talent both domestically and from around the world,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Thomas Donohue wrote in a letter to Trump.
“Policies that would, for example, impose wide-ranging bans on
the entry of nonimmigrant workers or impose burdensome new regulatory
requirements on businesses that employ foreign nationals would undermine that
access to talent, and, in the process, undercut our economy’s ability to grow
and create jobs,” he said in the letter reported by The Hill.
NPR reported
that there will likely be “national interest” exceptions on a case-by-case
basis for areas including public health and national security. Many of those
cases would be handled by the State Department. A source familiar with
discussions told Fox that the exemptions were still being finalized.
The order is likely to
see significant opposition from Democrats and immigration activists groups.
Leon Fresco, a former Obama administration official who now represents H-1B
workers told NPR that it was “counterproductive” and akin to “using a nuclear
bomb to address a bar fight,"
Meanwhile, even with
the possible exceptions, reports of the expansion were welcomed by immigration
hawks in Congress and outside.
Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, one of a number of Republicans who wrote to Trump
last month urging him to expand the restriction to include
guest worker programs, said he was glad to see Trump “delivering in such a big
way.”
“If the exceptions are
kept tight, this is a HUGE win for American workers,” he added.
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