US President Donald Trump signs executive order to restrict H1B Visa Use

The United States President Donald Trump on August 3 signed an executive order to restrict H1B Visa use. The order will restrict the federal agencies from contracting or subcontracting the foreign workers, affecting Indian IT professionals who have been working in the US on H1B Visa.

The signed executive order requires all the federal agencies of the US to complete an internal audit and assess if they have been in compliance with the requirement that only nationals and US citizens are appointed to the competitive services.

The step of signing an executive order came over a month after the US government suspended an H1B visa on June 23, 2020, along with other foreign work visas until the end of 2020 for protecting the American workforce. The new restrictions took effect from June 24.

President @realDonaldTrump's new executive order combats the misuse of H-1B visas—which have been exploited to replace qualified U.S. workers with lower-cost foreign ones—and directs all federal agencies to focus on hiring Americans.

1600 Daily: https://t.co/A68ueVC88u pic.twitter.com/BpKfCXb1RW

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 4, 2020

The signing of H1B Visa:

President Donald Trump in the oval office of White House informed that he is signing an executive order to ensure that the federal government lives by a very simple rule. ‘Hire American’.

He further added that H1B regulation is finalised so that no American worker is replaced ever again. H1B visa must be used for top highly paid talent to create American jobs, not as expensive labour programmes and destroy American jobs.

As a result of the executive order, the Labour Department will also finalise guidelines to prevent H1B employers from moving H1B workers to other employer’s job sites in order to displace American workers.

During the announcement, President was surrounded across the Cabinet room table with the individuals who have been campaigning against job outsourcing.

Prominent among them is Sara Blackwell, the founder, and President of Florida based-protect US workers organisation, Kevin Lynn, founder of Pennsylvania-based US tech workers, and Jonathan Hicks, a software engineer in Tennessee Valley Authority.

What can be expected from this decision?

As per White House, Donald Trump’s decision of restricting the use of an H1B visa will help in combating the employer’s misuse of H-1B visas, which were not intended to replace qualified American workers with low-cost foreign labour.

Trump mentions that he favors a merit-based immigration system bringing high-skilled people that create jobs inside the US and do not take jobs from Americans.

Why the US govt signed executive order?

US government’s order followed the announcement made by federally owned Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) that it will outsource 20% of its technology jobs to the companies based in the foreign countries.

As per the President, Tennessee Valley Authority’s step will cause more than 200 highly skilled American tech workers in losing their jobs to low-wage, as foreign workers will be hired on temporary work visas. He added that outsourcing hundreds of workers is especially problematic amid the pandemic which has already cost millions of American citizens their jobs.

Additionally, given the current climate of intellectual property theft, outsourcing IT jobs which involve sensitive information will also pose a National security risk.

H1B Visa and Indian IT professionals:

The H1B visa which is most preferred among Indian IT professionals is a non-immigrant visa allowing US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty operations which require technical and theoretical expertise.

The various technology companies depend on this visa to hire tens of thousands of employees every year from countries like India and China.

One of the participants who were present during the signing of the order also informed president Trump that as many as 70% of H1B visa goes to people from India.