Businesses brace for possible limits on foreign worker visas

Maya Nasr was admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at 16 to study aerospace engineering. Currently a doctoral student there, she has been working on NASA’s next Mars rover, slated for launch this summer.

“By the time I finish my PhD, I will have spent 10 years in the US researching what I am passionate about — getting people to Mars and human space exploration,” said Nasr, 23, who is Lebanese. “I would really like to stay here and work in this field.”

But recently she has been wracked with worry that the economic downturn that has left millions of Americans unemployed could threaten the visa program that would allow her to work as a foreigner in the United States once she graduates. “If I had to, I would consider Canada, the UK or Europe, but the US is the place,” she said.

President Donald Trump is expected to issue an executive order within days to temporarily suspend various work visas that businesses rely on to hire foreigners, and also lay the groundwork for regulatory changes that would limit employment opportunities for foreign graduates of US universities like Nasr.

The details and scope of the plan remain unclear, and it is still a work in progress. But the coming order has elicited an extraordinary response from a diverse coalition that includes universities and sectors spanning manufacturing, technology and consulting, which have been inundating the White House with letters and phone calls.

“What is scaring so many different groups here is that the order is going to impact everyone,” said Shev Dalal-Dheini, director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Trump on April 22 signed an executive order that suspended for 60 days the issuance of green cards for applicants outside the country, describing it as protection for unemployed Americans amid the coronavirus pandemic. But he stopped short of suspending visas and programs that allow US employers to hire foreign workers.

Additional limitations on foreign skilled and seasonal workers are now in the works, said several people who have been communicating with the administration in an attempt to narrow the scope of the proposed new limitations. “What is being proposed is significant; we just don’t know how far it will go,” Dalal-Dheini said.

A key target is expected to be the H-1B visa, often issued to computer programmers and other skilled workers who critics say often displace Americans from such jobs. The order is also expected to temporarily halt other visas, including L-1s, for executives transferred within companies; H-2Bs, for seasonal workers who often work in landscaping and hospitality; and J-1s, issued to au pairs, students on work-study summer programs and others.

The administration is also likely to freeze or downsize a popular program, Optional Practical Training, that enables graduates of US universities like Nasr to work in the country for up to three years if they are in science, technology or mathematics fields. Once in the program, the graduates are often sponsored for H-1Bs by their employers, who eventually may help them get green cards.

In the 2019 fiscal year, almost 139,000 new H-1B petitions were approved; 77,000 L-1 visas were issued, as well as 66,000 H-2Bs, visas for unskilled workers that Trump has regularly used to staff his resorts. There were about 200,000 new J-1 workers hired in 2018, according to the latest data available. About 225,000 graduates of US universities were authorised to remain in the country to work.

The visa suspensions would likely extend into the next fiscal year, starting Oct 1, according to people familiar with the planning.

The proposed limits on foreign worker visas, if adopted, would be the latest restriction on immigration imposed by the Trump administration since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

Immigration opponents argue that recipients of “nonimmigrant” visas compete with Americans for jobs, and that the present unemployment level justifies a clampdown.

“The president should insist that certain employers who have found it to be cheaper and more convenient to hire visa workers instead cast down their bucket here first, and get used to hiring US workers again,” said Jessica Vaughan, policy director at the Center for Immigration Studies, which lobbies to curb immigration. She said she was regularly consulted by White House aides on the matter.

The planned new restrictions could hamper the ability of companies to relocate personnel, affecting both American multinationals that transfer employees from abroad to the US and foreign firms that send employees to do stints in US cities.

The National Association of Manufacturers, which represents 14,000 small and large companies, sent a letter to the White House on June 1 warning that the planned immigration restrictions would stymie recovery efforts.

“We urge you to avoid immigration actions, either temporary or long term, that would cause uncertainty and impose great costs on our nation at this critical time,” said the letter, signed by the association’s president, Jay Timmons.

Two groups affiliated with industrialist Charles Koch last week sent a letter to Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, and Jared Kushner, senior adviser to Trump, urging the administration to “refrain from imposing additional barriers” on visas.

The letter from Americans for Prosperity and the Libre Initiative said research had shown that immigrants were key to an economic rebound.

The additional regulatory changes now under review would affect many other people already in the United States.

Among the changes under consideration are eliminating the H-4 visa, which allows spouses of H-1B visa holders to work; ending the Optional Practical Training program, or shortening the time foreign graduates can work in the US; and tightening H-1B requirements along with a $20,000 fee per applicant sponsored for the visa.

While some Republican lawmakers have called for rescinding the OPT program, 21 Republican members of Congress this month called for it to remain intact, saying in a letter to the Trump administration that it was a magnet for foreign students — a key source of revenue for many universities, whose numbers have been falling.

The Association of American Universities issued an action alert to presidents and chancellors, urging them to engage the administration on the executive order.

“The message you are sending to international students here, and those considering coming here, is that we don’t value them,” said Benjamin Lane, vice chair of the external affairs board at MIT’s graduate student council. International students represent 45% of MIT graduate students.

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