IMMIGRATION/TRAVEL BAN/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The federal government on Monday [4-3-17] began accepting visa applications for a fresh round of high-skilled foreign workers, without the wholesale changes President Donald Trump promised in his campaign. His administration did, though, announce one shift that could put pressure on outsourcing companies that typically win a large share of the coveted visas.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service said it would direct more inspectors in the H-1B program to the controversial outsourcing companies, many of them based in India. Those firms have drawn scrutiny because their U.S. subsidiaries sometimes import employees to do work once performed by Americans…
Last year, the government received more than 236,000 applications for the 85,000 visas, of which 20,000 are reserved for people with advanced degrees. That exceeded the previous year’s record and was the fourth year in a row in which the cap was reached within five days.
During his presidential campaign, Mr. Trump promised to reduce legal as well as illegal immigration, saying foreign workers drive down wages and threaten American jobs. At times, he was particularly critical of the H-1B program, though at other times he praised it.
‘These are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay,’ he said in a statement last March. ‘I remain totally committed to eliminating rampant, widespread H-1B abuse.’ “
-Laura Meckler, “Trump Administration Reopens H-1B Program, With a Twist,” The Wall Street Journal online, April 3, 2017