ALSO INSIDE
Skilled migrants face new hurdles,
It may be a while before President Donald Trump gets another chance at creating a new, “merit-based” immigration system, a keystone of his four-part plan that Congress rejected last month. In the meantime, his administration is busy making it harder, not easier, for skilled migrants to come work in the United States.
The State Department has ended an Obama-era program to grant visas to foreign entrepreneurs who want to start companies in the United States. It is more aggressively scrutinizing visas to skilled workers from other countries. And it is contemplating ending a provision that allows spouses of those skilled workers to be employed in the U.S.
The administration and its backers contend it’s trying to fix flaws in the existing, employer-centric skilled immigration system while advocating for a complete overhaul of America’s immi- gration system.
“The stuff that they’re actually doing is not so much restricting skilled immigration as enforcing the law,” said Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Stud- ies, which supports reducing immigration. “They’re rolling back some of the extralegal measures that other administrations have taken.”
A primary avenue for skilled immigrants to enter the United States is the H1B visa for specialty workers, which is heavily used by the technology industry. About 85,000 visas are issued annually in a lottery system. Some critics argue they are a way for companies to avoid hir- ing U.S. citizens; Trump him- self has said H1B recipients shouldn’t even be considered skilled.
In 2016, two technology workers sued Disney, alleging 250 U.S. employees were laid off and many were forced to train replacements who were hired on H1B visas. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying Disney was following existing immigration laws.
The Trump administration has increased its scrutiny of H1B applications, requiring renewals be submitted in person and asking for addi- tional proof the workers are needed and are being paid top tier.
“This increase reflects our commitment to protecting the integrity of the immigration system,” said Joanne Fereirra, a spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immi- gration Services. She added that 92.5 percent of the visas are still approved, only two percentage points lower than under the Obama administration in 2016.
Still, businesses have noticed a change.
e got employees that are going through the process, who have gone through such a level of scrutiny and interrogatory that is unprece- dented,” said Dean Garfield, president of the Information Technology Industry Council, which advocates for H1B visas and has had one of its own workers have to move back overseas because of delays in approving the requisite visa.
The extra time with H1B visas is only part of the administration’s changes to skilled, work-based immigration.
Last year, Trump signed an executive order that directed all government agencies to “rigorously enforce and administer the laws governing entry into the United States of workers from abroad” to ensure the maximum number of U.S. citizens have jobs. The order also called for shifting H1Bs from lower-paid workers to higher-paid ones who truly have skills that can’t be obtained from the native workforce.
The administration also stopped an Obama administration program that was about to start last year to provide visas to let international entrepreneurs who start companies in the United States live in the country for renewable, 30-month stints.
In December, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released its new regulatory agenda which included further, unspecified changes to the H1B program. The administration also indicated it will roll back the STEM OPT program expanded by President Barack Obama that lets international science and technology students work legally in the U.S. for up to three years.