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Washington: The United States is working to temporarily ban the issuance of some work-based visas like H-1B, popular with highly skilled Indian IT professionals, as well as student visas and accompanying work authorization, amid the high level of unemployment due to coronavirus, according to a media report on Friday.
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to hire foreign workers from countries like India and China in special occupations that require theoretical or technical experience.
About 500,000 migrant workers are employed in the United States in the H-1B state.
“The president’s immigration advisers are developing plans for an upcoming executive order, scheduled for this month, that would ban the issuance of new temporary work-based visas.” The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
“The order is expected to focus on visa categories that include H-1B, designed for highly skilled workers, and H-2B, for seasonal migrant workers, as well as student visas and the accompanying work authorization,” he said. .
More than 33 million Americans have lost their jobs in the past two months due to the coronavirus pandemic that has paralyzed the American economy.
The IMF and the World Bank have projected a negative growth rate for the country.
White House officials say the U.S. economy is likely to grow at a negative level of 15-20 percent in the second quarter.
Friday’s monthly jobs report said the U.S. unemployment rate for the month of April rose to 14.7 percent.
This is the highest rate and the largest increase for the month in the series’ history, seasonally adjusted data has been available since January 1948, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics said. USA
As such, the Trump administration, having temporarily closed the borders and curtailed immigration in response to the coronavirus pandemic, is moving to expand those restrictions as advisers to the president push to leave them in place for months or even years, according to several known people. with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Last month, President Donald Trump had signed an executive order temporarily banning new immigrants for 60 days, including family members of U.S. citizens.
“The next changes, the administration suggested, will be based on this April action,” the newspaper said.
Given the high level of unemployment and unemployment, according to the newspaper, senior administration officials are operating on the assumption that the public, during the pandemic, will be willing to accept new limits on immigration.
“Although the scope of the order has not yet been decided, administration officials said it could range from suspending full visa categories to creating incentives to hire Americans in the industries most affected by the layoffs,” The reported. Wall Street Journal.
The Wall Street Journal report appeared a day after a group of four Republican senators in a letter urged Trump to suspend all new guest worker visas for 60 days and some of its categories, including the H-1B visa, by at least for the next year or until unemployment figures return to normal levels in the country.
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