In July 2020, President Trump signed an executive order temporarily suspending the issuance of certain work visas aimed at protecting local workers.
Days ahead of signing the order, in a Fox News interview, Trump said that he thinks 'the decision would make many people happy.'
In a statement released after the issuance of the order, the White House said the order had been passed considering the unemployment rate in the United States, which has nearly quadrupled since the outbreak of the Coronavirus, as millions of Americans remained out of work. ‘Between February and April of 2020, more than 20 million United States workers lost their jobs in industries. It is expected that the U.S. economy will likely require several months to return to pre-Covid-19 economic output and return to the normal labor market. Taking this situation into consideration, President Donald Trump issued a presidential proclamation suspending H1 B visas and L1 visas till the end of the year’ the White House statement read.
The statement mentioned that the ban is temporary, and its implementation was in the interests of the workers in the United States.
In the sweeping order, Trump blocked visas for a wide variety of jobs, including those for computer programmers and other skilled workers who enter the country under the H-1B visa, as well as those for seasonal workers in the hospitality industry, students on work-study summer programs and au pairs who arrive under other auspices.
The order also restricts the ability of American companies with global operations and international companies with U.S. branches to transfer foreign executives and other employees to the United States for months or years-long stints. And it blocks the spouses of foreigners who are employed at companies in the United States.
The New York Times reported quoting government officials that the ban on worker visas, combined with extending restrictions on the issuance of new green cards, would keep as many as 525,000 foreign workers out of the country for the rest of the year.
President’s move was fiercely opposed by several business leaders, who said it would ‘block their ability to recruit critically needed workers from countries overseas for jobs that Americans are not willing to do or are not capable of performing.’ This was expected to impact a large number of Indian IT professionals and several American and Indian companies who were issued H-1B visas by the US government for the fiscal year 2021 beginning October 1. They will have to wait until the end of the current year before approaching the US diplomatic missions to get stamping. It is also likely to have impacted a large number of Indian IT professionals who were seeking renewal of their H-1B visas.
However, since the order has temporarily suspended the H1B visas, hence the claim is partly true.
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