President Trump is being urged to extend an executive order he signed in June that halted a number of foreign visa worker programs so as to ease labor market competition against millions of jobless Americans who have been forced out of their jobs by the Chinese coronavirus crisis.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) has sent a letter to Trump asking that he extend the order, set to expire by January 1, 2021, to continue to prioritize unemployed Americans for scarce jobs in the United States rather than allowing businesses to import foreign workers on various visas.
Trump’s order halted visa programs, including:
- H-1B visas, who take white-collar U.S. jobs
- H-4 visas, who are the spouses of H-1B visa holders
- H-2B visas, who take blue-collar nonagricultural U.S. jobs
- L visas, who take white-collar U.S. jobs
- J-1 visas, who take a variety of blue-collar and white-collar U.S. jobs
“This critical proclamation suspended the entry of many foreign guest workers, including those under the particularly egregious H-1B and H-2B programs,” FAIR President Dan Stein wrote in the letter to Trump. “It also extended Proclamation 10014 issued on April 22, 2020, which suspended the entry of certain new legal immigrants who do not already have an approved visa.”
Stein continued:
Mr. President, putting American workers first has been your top priority, and Proclamation 10052 did just that. You withstood intense pressure from powerful business interests that continue to demand more cheap foreign labor, even as they have laid-off an unprecedented number of American workers. I urge you to extend this proclamation well into 2021 in an effort to further protect American workers and their families during these trying times. [Emphasis added]
Should Trump extend the order, the letter notes, President-elect Joe Biden “will have to answer to the American people” should he eliminate the order and allow businesses to import foreign visa workers at a time of mass unemployment.
“If Joe Biden does end up entering the Oval Office and quickly rescinds this your proclamation, he will have to answer to the American people and tell them why he decided to increase immigration and restore unfettered access to guest workers in the midst of the greatest economic crisis in living memory,” Stein writes.
Today, there are 24.5 million Americans who are either unemployed or underemployed, but all of who want full-time jobs and whose labor market prospects are crushed when forced to compete against foreign workers. Of those 24.5 million, 17.8 million are jobless.
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 visa workers are admitted every year to take U.S. jobs. Often, Americans are fired and replaced by these workers. Many are forced to train their foreign replacements.
The full letter can be read here:
Fair Proclamation Extension by John Binder
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.