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发帖数: 4298 | 1 【 以下文字转载自 Military 讨论区 】
发信人: umner (jhq), 信区: Military
标 题: WSJ: Trump Administration Considers Suspending H-1B, Other Visas Through the Fall
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Thu Jun 11 21:03:02 2020, 美东)
Trump Administration Considers Suspending H-1B, Other Visas Through the Fall
President is expected to take action scaling back employment-based
immigration in move aimed at speeding economic recovery after pandemic
crisis
By Michelle Hackman and Andrew Restuccia
Updated June 11, 2020 7:14 pm ET
WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is weighing a proposal to suspend a
slate of employment-based immigration visas, including the coveted H-1B high
-skilled visa, according to administration officials familiar with the talks
, among several possible measures amid the economic fallout of the pandemic.
The proposed suspension could extend into the government’s new fiscal year,
beginning Oct. 1, when many new visas are typically issued, these officials
said. That could bar any new H-1B holder outside the country from coming to
work until the suspension is lifted, though visa holders already in the
country are unlikely to be affected.
The suspension proposal is one of a series of legal immigration limits that
President Trump is considering as part of an executive action he is set to
unveil in the coming weeks. The administration has argued that the pandemic
requires limits on immigration to prevent sick people from entering the
country and to ensure that Americans get jobs first as the economy rebounds.
Administration officials said the president hasn’t yet signed off on the
plan, adding that it could change as senior aides continue to discuss the
matter.
“The administration is currently evaluating a wide range of options,
formulated by career experts, to protect American workers and job seekers,
especially disadvantaged and underserved citizens—but no decisions of any
kind have been made,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a
statement.
In addition to the H-1B visa, the suspension could apply to the H-2B visa
for short-term seasonal workers, the J-1 visa for short-term workers
including camp counselors and au pairs and the L-1 visa for internal company
transfers.
The administration plans to exempt some industries from the restrictions,
such as health-care workers directly involved in treating Covid-19 patients
and others critical to the food supply chain. The administration is also
considering a broader carve-out allowing employers to hire immigrants if
they can prove they can’t hire Americans for a given job.
Lawmakers and businesses—including tech companies and seasonal employers—
along with colleges and universities, are calling on the administration to
abandon the plan and have been circulating details of the proposals online.
They say that barring immigrants who fill unique skill sets or take jobs
most Americans won’t perform would hamper economic growth rather than
bolster it.
In a May 27 letter addressed to Mr. Trump, nine Republican senators,
including Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) and John Cornyn (R., Texas) urged him to
reconsider broad new restrictions on temporary work-visa programs, which
the senators said would ultimately hurt U.S. businesses.
“American businesses that rely on help from these visa programs should not
be forced to close without serious consideration,” they wrote. “Guest
workers are needed to boost American business, not take American jobs.”
A recent poll from the Pew Research Center found that 64% of adults said
legal immigrants mostly fill jobs U.S. citizens don’t want.
Senior officials at the White House, the Department of Homeland Security and
the Labor Department have been working for several months on the
recommendations, which they plan to bring to the president for final signoff
as soon as this week, the people familiar with the talks said.
Other changes under discussion would take longer to implement as formal
regulations, but if adopted, would become permanent, they said.
The administration is considering scaling back the Optional Practical
Training program that allows international students to work on their student
visas. The proposal would repeal an Obama-era extension allowing students
with science or engineering degrees to work for three years, rather than the
one year permitted all other students, and limit work permits only to those
graduating at the top of their class.
It is also considering ending an Obama-era rule allowing spouses of H-1B
workers to work on their visas. That could eliminate approximately 100,000
immigrants from the workforce over time.
In addition, the administration is mulling a proposal to charge $20,000 to
apply for H-1B visas, either by increasing the application fee or adding it
as surcharge, the people familiar with the talks said. The H-1B application
fee is currently $460, though some companies pay hundreds or thousands of
dollars more in additional fees.
Last November, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that
processes visa petitions, proposed nearly doubling the cost of a citizenship
application among other fees to address its budget shortfall. The agency
has since said the pandemic has worsened its financial problems, prompting
the agency to shut offices and pause most routine immigration services for
two and a half months.
Officials said that increasing H-1B visa costs could help USCIS, the agency
that processes visa petitions, plug a hole in its budget. The agency, which
is funded through fees it collects on immigration applications, is asking
Congress for a $1.2 billion bailout.
The package is likely to include several other long-sought changes to the H-
1B program, including narrowing the definition of qualifying specialty
occupations and placing more requirements on companies hiring these workers
as contractors. The administration may also shorten the length of H-1B visas
for workers paid at the lowest pay tier and require pay increases for them
upon renewal.
Another proposal could eliminate work permits for asylum seekers—a move the
government has already formally proposed—along with refugees and other
immigrants who aren’t required by law to receive them.
In April, the president signed a proclamation temporarily barring some
family-based immigration to the country, two days after teasing a full ban
in response to the pandemic’s economic toll. In a concession to hard-line
immigration groups, the order asked for recommendations on additional ways
to curb employment-based immigration within 50 days—a period ending Friday.
Some members of groups favoring immigration restrictions said that while the
proposals echo policies they have long urged Mr. Trump to adopt, they
worried he would side with businesses who oppose them.
“From how long this is taking, it’s clear they’re more worried about big
business interests than unemployed American workers,” said RJ Hauman,
government relations director at the Federation for American Immigration
Reform, a group that advocates for lower levels of immigration. “So at this
point we’ll believe it when we see it.”
Write to Michelle Hackman at [email protected] and Andrew Restuccia
at [email protected] |
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