IMMIGRATION/JOBS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Trump administration is adding hurdles and increasing scrutiny in the employment-visa application process, making it harder for businesses to hire foreign workers, and companies and immigration attorneys are bracing for more changes soon.
President Donald Trump has long campaigned against illegal immigration, but he also backs reductions to legal immigration, arguing that foreigners provide unneeded competition for Americans. So far, the administration hasn’t enacted wholesale policy changes to the employment-visa programs. Congress hasn’t enacted any new limits or changes either. But the administration has tightened the system in ways that together are making it tougher to import foreign workers.
The administration is more closely scrutinizing applications for the high-skilled visa program known as H-1B, sending back more than one in four applications between January and August via ‘requests for further evidence,’ according to data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, known as USCIS, which administers the program. A year earlier, fewer than one in five were sent back.”
-Laura Meckler, “Trump Administration Tightens Scrutiny of Skilled Worker Visa Applicants,” The Wall Street Journal online, Nov. 19, 2017 01:24pm