Trump’s “Buy American, Hire

American” executive order is confusing. First, any changes require either congressional action, changing statutory requirements, or regulations that would trigger his prior order telling agencies to rescind two regulations for every new regulation proposed.

Moreover, the law for the H1-B visa program already requires that H1-B beneficia- ries hold specialized bachelor’s degrees for the positions offered, and there are anti-fraud and training fees so the government can maintain programs Trump is calling for. Documented instances of fraud in the H1-B and other temporary visa programs are actually quite low. Most employers use the H1-B program because they need the skills and talent of a particular worker and those that don’t can be rooted out by the existing anti-fraud programs.

Our immigration system is critical to all geographic and industry sectors, not just Silicon Valley. H1-B workers help transform state and local economies across the nation. These workers are vital to our health care, manufacturing, agricultural processing and energy industries. Rebecca Bernhard Dorsey & Whitney LLP Minneapolis