President Trump suspends H-1B visas until next year

President Donald Trump at the Tulsa rally. Reuters.

President Donald Trump has suspended H-1B visas until next year. Reuters. H-1B visas allow skilled workers to enter the country and take jobs in America. In addition to the H-1B visa ban, L-1 visas, which allow international transfers within a company, and some H-2B visas, which are for seasonal workers, will be banned as well. Tech companies and the Chamber of Commerce oppose the change, saying it will hurt business. President Trump also extended the temporary ban on some immigration. In the short term the moves will have little effect as most US consulates are still closed for the pandemic. 

My Comment:

This is a good move for President Trump as his base absolutely hates the entire concept of H-1B visas. The last thing any of them want to see is a non-American taking a job that should have gone to an American.  And given the economic situation we are in right now it makes little sense to bring in new people when there are enough people here without jobs. 

In theory H-1B visas are supposed to be only used after companies have exhausted all American options for filling a job. In practice they are used to lower wages as the companies offer wages so low that Americans can't take them. This of course works out well for the company, as they have lower payroll costs, and for the immigrant, as they get a job and can live in the US for a time, but it screws over the American worker. 

This is why tech industries are going to be extremely angry about this. They tend to have many of these workers and they save a ton of money by not hiring Americans. This alone probably explains why the tech companies are so anti-Trump, this move is a threat to their bottom line. 

I do hope that this somehow becomes permanent. The H-1B system desperately needs reform. Though I do think there is an argument to be made that we might have some jobs we can't fill without immigrants, I don't think there are really that many of them and the real problem is that these companies aren't willing to pay what American workers are worth. Getting rid of H-1B visas would increase wages as companies would have to raise wages and benefits in order to attract workers. 

Though President Trump's base is going to be thrilled by this, it could anger some donors in the Republican Party. It's very rare for a Republican president to push back for American workers and it's because big business controls the purse strings. The fact that this is temporary might make this pill a little easier for them to swallow. 

However, like the article said, this won't have much of an immediate effect. Most consulates are closed due to the Coronavirus and immigration has essentially stopped. Though the pandemic has faded from the public consciousness, it still rages in many of the countries we get these workers from in the first place. Assuming that changes this order might have more relevance but in the short term at least it's not a big deal.