{"id":23510,"date":"2020-08-20T11:29:27","date_gmt":"2020-08-20T15:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=23510"},"modified":"2020-08-20T11:29:30","modified_gmt":"2020-08-20T15:29:30","slug":"foreign-worker-exemptions-state-dept-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/08\/20\/foreign-worker-exemptions-state-dept-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Bureaucrats Churn Work-Visa Restrictions Into Smelly Swiss Cheese"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s order<\/a> restricting the influx of foreign workers during the coronavirus pandemic is being shredded by his State Department. Which raises the question: Who are these bureaucrats working for?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less than two months after they were directed to draft regulations barring work-visa holders from U.S. jobs, federal officials exempted<\/a><\/em> eight classifications of foreign workers under a variety of circumstances: H-1B (“highly skilled” workers); H-2B (non-skilled, non-ag workers); H-4 (spouses, usually, of H-1Bs); J-1 (exchange students and scholars); J-2 (spouses and children); L-1A and L-1B (employees of multinational corporations); and L-2 (their spouses and children). H-2A farmworkers were already exempted under earlier rulings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John\nMiano, a lawyer with the Immigration Reform Law Institute, said the D.C.\nbureaucrats \u201ctotally eviscerated the requirements\u201d of Trump\u2019s order. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without\nelaborating on reasons for the broad \u201cNational Interest Exceptions,\u201d an\nofficial statement said only that the State Department \u201cworked closely with the\nDepartments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Labor.\u201d Could it be mere coincidence\nthat Acting DHS Director Chad Wolf formerly worked as a lobbyist for NASSCOM,\nan association of global outsourcing companies?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to news reports<\/a>, NASSCOM members include many large Indian-run staffing firms (\u201cbody shops\u201d) that provide most of India\u2019s 450,000 H-1B and L-1 workers in the U.S. Based on NASSCOM\u2019s giddy reaction to State\u2019s expansive exceptions, one might wonder whose \u201cnational interest\u201d is being served. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

American\ncompanies have an army of more than 1.3 million foreign workers in a wide range\nfields. Even as the U.S. unemployment rate remains stuck in double digits,\nthere is no evidence that many H-1Bs have been sent home since losing their jobs\nin the coronavirus crash. The foreign workers can stay legally because\nregulations allow jobless H-1B workers to switch their visas to F-1 study\nvisas, and then reactivate their H-1Bs when companies seek to hire them again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, some 60,000 H-1B holders overseas will try to get into the United States via State Department exceptions. This comes at a time when the administration is quietly forecasting years of dramatically reduced demand<\/a> for U.S. visas due to the likelihood of a prolonged economic slump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to the State Department action, FAIR<\/a> noted that Trump\u2019s proclamation contained its own set of loopholes, exempting current and prospective international students here on F-1 visas. These students (and graduates) remain eligible for employment through the large Optional Practical Training program, which remains unaffected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNone of these exceptions are needed by foreign workers already in the country,\u201d observed David North of the Center for Immigration Studies. \u201cIt\u2019s another indication that the administration seems not to want to inconvenience the private sector by seriously reducing the foreign worker population. “<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump\u2019s order restricting the influx of foreign workers during the coronavirus pandemic is being shredded by his State Department. Which raises the question: Who are these bureaucrats working for? Less than two months after they were directed to draft regulations barring work-visa holders from U.S. jobs, federal officials exempted eight classifications of foreign<\/p>\n

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