IMMIGRATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The spouses of highly skilled foreign workers would no longer be able to work legally in the U.S. under a regulatory change proposed by the Trump administration on Thursday [12-14-17].
The plan, laid out in a notice that it intends to propose a rule in 2018, would undo a program by the Obama administration that benefits foreign couples where one person is working in the U.S. on an H-1B visa. The regulation is being challenged in court as an overstepping of executive authority, and the Trump administration appears to be signaling that it intends to overturn it rather than defend it.
The notice published on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security wasn’t specific about its reasoning, saying: ‘DHS is proposing to remove from its regulations certain H-4 spouses of H-1B nonimmigrants as a class of aliens eligible for employment authorization,’ it said.
The H-4 is the visa issued to spouses of H-1B holders.
The notice said DHS was reviewing the Obama-era rule in light of President Donald Trump’s ‘Buy American and Hire American’ executive order earlier this year…
Its critics say the spousal work authorization magnified the negative impact of the H-1B program on U.S. workers.”
-Laura Meckler, “DHS Seeks to End Work Eligibility for Spouses of H-1B Holders,” The Wall Street Journal online, Dec. 14, 2017 09:00pm