Trump pushes to cut visas in NAFTA deal
U.S. seeks to slash number of high-skilled Canadian, Mexican workers allowed to enter
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is working to slash the number of visas granted to Canadian and Mexican professionals as part of ongoing NAFTA negotiations among the three countries.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is leading the push as part of President Donald Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” initiative promised during the 2016 campaign.
The administration wants to limit the number of eligible professions and decrease the number of visa renewals of Treaty NAFTA, or TN, visas as the countries renegotiate the 1994 trade deal. Trump, who has forced the renegotiation, has threatened to scrap it unless it addresses the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico.
“At the negotiating table, the U.S. statements have been basically, ‘Look, we want to scale this back, we don’t want to agree to expand it (visas),’ ” said Eric Miller, a trade consultant who has worked for the Canadian government and continues to advise them on the negotiations.
The discussions over the visas are continuing even though Congress passed a bill in 2016 barring any administration from trying to change the number of visas granted to a country as part of trade negotiations, after past presidents did just that.
Some people on Capitol Hill who have studied the 2016 law’s language say the administration can work around it by modifying the existing trade agreement instead of writing a new one.
Lawmakers will have final approval anyway because Congress must ratify any new version of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Negotiators from the United States, Canada and Mexico missed an informal deadline earlier this month set by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. to complete talks to allow lawmakers to vote on a new treaty this year. Talks continue, but it’s highly unlikely now that Congress will consider the treaty this year, given their schedule and the upcoming midterm elections.
Fewer than 25,000 TN visas were issued for Mexicans in 2016, including about 10,000 for family members of the TN visa recipients, according to the State Department. No statistics are kept for Canadians, who have a lower bar to meet and can seek the visas when they arrive at the border. But some Canadian reports have put the number in the tens of thousands.
Those who favor restricting immigration argue the program could trigger a flood of immigrants in the United States because there are no limits to the number of visas or renewals.
The number of TN visa workers in the U.S. has grown in recent years as the program has become more attractive. In 2008, the length of stay was increased from one year to three, making it an appealing alternative to other high-skilled visas. Approved occupations for the TN visa include accountants, hotel managers, land surveyors, nutritionists, engineers and computer systems analysts.
“It’s one of these secrets in immigration law that people only recently discovered,” said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute.