Round 2: Trump’s Work Visa Reform to Directly Affect Tech Companies

It’s been a week of turmoil in the United States, also deemed as a ‘constitutional crisis’ by some. The Trump administration introduced some highly controversial immigration reforms and imposed a ban on asylum seekers from seven Muslim countries, provoking nationwide protests.

In what it seems like an excruciatingly long four years of Trump’s presidency, this can only be the first of the many controversial decisions to come. And to hammer down that point, his administration is already gearing up for round 2; reforming the H-1B work visa.

What is the H-1B Program?

The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa in the United States and lets employers in the U.S. employ foreign workers on a temporary basis. The program is primarily used by technology companies as well as young startups to bring in talent from outside the country.

Currently, the program has a cap of 85,000 work visas per year. The cap has been in place for several years and is already said to be oversubscribed. A number of politicians, both right-wing and left-wing, have already been pushing for a major reform of the program. However, not all of them would be happy with the kind of reform we are likely to get from the Trump administration.

Here is a passage from the draft from the upcoming immigration executive order, according to Bloomberg,

“Our country’s immigration policies should be designed and implemented to serve, first and foremost, the U.S. national interest. Visa programs for foreign workers … should be administered in a manner that protects the civil rights of American workers and current lawful residents, and that prioritizes the protection of American workers — our forgotten working people — and the jobs they hold.”

Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and most of the Silicon Valley, are going to be the most heavily affected by the reform. No details have been given as to what changes will be introduced in the program. However, considering Trump’s stance on immigration and his “America-first” policy, the changes to the program could only lead to bad blood between Trump and these companies.

Donald Trump was already expected to bring a lot of complications for the technology industry, even before he took the oath as the President. Even then, his first week has come as a severe shock. As Pakistanis, we should also take his steps seriously and with caution as it is highly possible that Pakistan will also get included in the list of banned countries.

Image Credit — Atlantic

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