The Trump administration’s restrictions on work visas

The US immigration system offers multiple options for highly qualified foreigners to come to the country and work with local companies, which normally specialize in technology, science, research, engineering, inter alia.

However, despite the alternatives available for business immigration, the Trump administration decided to suspend the issuance of most work visas until 2021 due to the threat posed by the global Coronavirus pandemic.

The current administration of the US argues that, on many occasions, foreigners tend to take job opportunities that should be available to American citizens during the current juncture.

In addition to that, President Trump assures that this emergency measure helps reduce the current unemployment rate, which is the highest in the recent history of the US.

As expected, this governmental decision sparked controversy among the local population, mainly because there are multiple sectors of the market that greatly benefit from and, in some cases, depend on foreign workforce.

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Work visa figures – 2020

According to official figures, the issuance of work visas had already decreased considerably since January, 2020, before the massive outbreak of Coronavirus in the North American territory and before President Trump announced the restrictions, which happened in June.

Figures show that:

• In February, 45,987 work visas were issued, a lower figure than in January, which was 61,095.
• The figure dropped to 25,468 in March.
• In April, the country was going through one of its highest peaks of contagion, which reduced the issuance of work visas to just 494.
• President Trump announced work visa restrictions in June.
• In July, this figure increased to 2,239.

Therefore, we can conclude that the reduction in business immigration happened even before the Trump administration restricted the issuance of work visas until 2021.

However, dozens of critics and activists say that the Trump administration is using the health crisis to reduce legal immigration, which has been its plan since the president took office in 2017.

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The DOS lifts some of the restrictions on work visas

Despite the Trump administration’s attempt to reduce the issuance of work visas, the Department of State (DOS) released a broad series of exceptions to work visa restrictions in August.

Therefore, it is very possible that business immigration will gradually return to normal during the rest of the year.

In addition to that, it is important to clarify that for a local company to be able to request a foreign worker, one of the requirements is to demonstrate that there are no trained personnel to fill the job in question. As a result, the reduction of work visas has tremendously affected dozens of American businesses that need foreign workforce to overcome the current economic crisis.

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