Trump Suspends H-1b, H-2B, L-1, and J-1 Visas with His Latest Counter-Productive and Damaging Immigration Proclamation
Trump’s latest attack on immigration is arguably his boldest, most pretextual and most counter-productive to its stated goal (though the Travel Bans may be a close tie). In order to try and convince people of its illogical rationale, the order is clumsily titled “Proclamation Suspending Entry of Aliens Who Present a Risk to the U.S. Labor Market Following the Coronavirus Outbreak.”
The stated rationale is undoubtedly a product of the binary-thinking, xenophobe, Stephen Miller, President Trump’s White House aide charged with immigration policy.
Remarkably, in a move that has been blasted fiercely and uniformly by business leaders, the proclamation halts through the end of the year H-1b, H-2b, L-1 and J-1 nonimmigrant visas. While the ban does not apply to nonimmigrants already in the U.S. or those who already have valid visas, no further visas in these categories will be issued through December 31, 2020 (and “may be continued as necessary”). This move is incredibly shocking since these visas are the bedrock of any developed, global economy. Let’s take a look at each one:
H-1b Visas: I describe H-1bs as the basic visa any American company uses to hire a foreign national professional (someone with at least a Bachelor degree). A great number of these visas go to STEM graduates from U.S. universities. You simply cannot have a global economy without this type of visa. What democracy would not let their companies hire some foreign nationals? While there are some legitimate concerns about H-1b abuse, these problems can be addressed with new rules and better enforcement. To flat out deny entry in this category is as protectionist an immigration policy as we have seen in a half century. And remember, we only allow 85,000 H-1b workers per year, a number that has not changed since before the internet revolution even really started in 1990. Divide that by our total labor force for a global economy our size and you get a drop in the bucket.
L-1 Visas: The only thing more absurd then suspending all H-1b visas under the guise of helping U.S. workers is suspending L-1 visas. L-1 visas are for transferring high level employees from one related company abroad to a branch in the U.S. L-1s are limited to Executives (e.g. the CEO, CTO or COO!), Managers and Specialized Knowledge employees (i.e. employees who have a great deal of company specific knowledge needed for U.S. operations). The amount of job creation this move will stifle will be significant and irreversible. New office L-1 visas literally allow Executives and Managers to open up their first U.S. branch office. Yet, in a time of economic turmoil, we are telling multinational companies to do their business elsewhere.
H-2b Visas: These are temporary, or seasonal non-professional worker visas. We have always needed more H-2b visas than we have for the simple reason that we have an enormous economy with a lot of jobs that not enough Americans want or can fill. The shortage of these visas and the difficulty in obtaining them is a massive contributor to why we have a large undocumented population in the first place. Instead of increasing these visas (they are limited to 66,000 a year), the President now thinks that there will be enough U.S. workers to fill these positions when there literally has never been enough workers for these positions. What this will undoubtedly do is force businesses to close; businesses that employ a great number of U.S. workers in the more highly skilled, year-round positions.
J-1 Visas – While the limitation on J-1 visas is less directly linked perhaps to an immediate adverse economic impact on the U.S., it is important to remember that J-1 visas fall under a “cultural exchange” umbrella; the idea being that we want to expose educated young people throughout the globe to our culture so that they respect our country and want to work with us in the future. To suspend this program, like the rest of this proclamation, extends a big middle finger to the rest of the world.
It is hard to understand why this administration is so hostile to so much of what has made us a great country. In a time when we are facing REAL problems, namely racial injustice and a global pandemic, you could not dream up an administration more ill-equipped to deal with them. We have a President whose own company was sued by the DOJ for racist housing practices and who ignores science. Suspending the most basic and fundamental work visas during this time is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. But the smoke from these policies will not just dissipate into thin air, but it will linger and smolder and start fires that we may not be able to put out.
Employment immigration is an intrinsic part of being a world leader and economic, global superpower. The U.S. would never have risen to such heights without allowing foreign nationals to study here, work here, contribute here, exchange ideas here, found companies here, create jobs here, and immigrate here! While we are facing an economic crisis, and haltingly high (but presumably temporary) unemployment, keeping out highly skilled co-workers, investors, executives, and managers will not save jobs, it will instead cause more to be lost as companies contract further or fail.
As always, feel free to reach out to us and we can explain these new changes to you, though we cannot explain why they were enacted.