President Trump is expected to expand an existing executive order to further halt the inflow of foreign visa workers while more than 30 million Americans remain unemployed.
Multiple sources who spoke to NPR said Trump is likely to sign an expansion of his April immigration executive order that halted new employment-based green cards, a small category of the more than two million legal immigrants and foreign workers who are admitted to the United States every year.
The expansion, which Trump may sign this weekend, is expected to halt the inflow of foreign workers arriving on H-1B visas, L-1 visas, J-1 visas, and H-2B visas.
The expansion would mean a major reduction to foreign competition in the U.S. job market until the end of the year, as currently about 40 million Americans are unemployed and underemployed – all of whom want full-time work.
NPR reports:
The order would target H-1B visas, which are designed for certain skilled workers such as those employed in the tech industry, as well as L-1 visas, which are meant for executives who work for large corporations. [Emphasis added]
The executive action is also expected to suspend H-2B visas for seasonal workers such as hotel and construction staff; J-1 visas, which are meant for research scholars and professors and other cultural and work-exchange programs. Trump could renew the suspensions when they lapse. The order is not expected to immediately affect anyone already in the United States. [Emphasis added]
“No matter how you slice it, this is shaping up to be a big win for American workers at a critical time,” said RJ Hauman, government relations director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for lower levels of immigration. FAIR had called on Trump to suspend guest worker visas. [Emphasis added]
Trump’s expansion of the order is expected to exempt J visas for foreign au pairs, a program often used by wealthy households to import cheap nannies; the H-2B visa program that brings in an uncapped number of foreign farmworkers; OPT visas that provide cheaper foreign workers to tech corporations, and foreign workers deemed critical to the treatment of coronavirus patients.
For months, grassroots American workers advocates and college student groups have fought back against the donor class, Big Tech lobbyists, and the Chamber of Commerce in pushing Trump to expand the order to reduce foreign competition against unemployed Americans.
The latest polls from ten swing states, conducted by Zogby Analytics, showed that the overwhelming majority of voters said they want less immigration.
Every year, the U.S. admits about 1.2 million legal immigrants on green cards to permanently resettle in the country. In addition, another 1.4 million foreign workers are admitted every year to take American jobs. Often, Americans are fired and replaced by foreign visa workers. Many are forced to train their foreign replacements.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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