Trump signs order against hiring H-1B visa holders for US federal contracts

In an enormous blow to Indian IT professionals eyeing the US job market, President Donald Trump on Monday signed an govt order stopping federal businesses from contracting or subcontracting overseas employees — primarily these on H-1B visa — from hiring.

The transfer came to visit a month after the Trump administration in June 23 suspended the H-1B visas together with different sorts of overseas work visas till the tip of 2020 to guard American employees in a vital election yr. The new restrictions took impact from June 24. The H1B visa, most sought-after amongst Indian IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visa that enables US firms to make use of overseas employees in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical experience.

The expertise firms rely upon it to rent tens of 1000’s of workers every year from international locations like India and China.

“Today I am signing an executive order to ensure that the federal government lives by a very simple rule, higher American,” Trump advised reporters within the Oval Office of the White House earlier than signing the order towards hiring H-1B visa holders for federal contracts.

Trump advised reporters that his administration is not going to tolerate firing of hardworking Americans within the pursuit of low cost overseas labour. “As we speak, we’re finalising the H-1B regulation so that no American workers be replaced ever again. H-1B should be used for top highly paid talent to create American jobs, not as inexpensive labour programmes and destroy American job,” mentioned the president who was surrounded throughout the Cabinet Room desk with people campaigning towards job outsourcing. Prominent amongst them had been Sara Blackwell, founder and president of Florida-based Protect US Workers organisation; Jonathan Hicks, a software program engineer within the Tennessee Valley Authority; and Kevin Lynn, founding father of Pennsylvania-based US Tech Workers.

The govt order requires all federal businesses to finish an inner audit and assess whether or not they’re in compliance with the requirement that solely US residents and nationals are appointed to the aggressive service. As a end result, the Department of Labour can even finalise guidlines to stop H-1B employers from shifting H-1B employees to different employers’ job websites to displace Americans employees.

Trump’s order follows the federally-owned Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) announcement that it’ll outsource 20 per cent of its expertise jobs to firms based mostly in overseas international locations. TVA’s motion might trigger greater than 200 highly-skilled American tech employees in Tennessee to lose their jobs to low-wage, overseas employees employed on non permanent work visas, the president mentioned.

Outsourcing tons of of employees is very detrimental in the course of a pandemic, which has already value tens of millions of Americans their jobs, the White House mentioned in a press release. Given the present local weather of rampant mental property theft, outsourcing IT jobs that contain delicate info might pose a nationwide safety danger, it mentioned.

According to the White House, Trump’s actions will assist fight employers’ misuse of H-1B visas, which had been by no means meant to switch certified American employees with low-cost overseas labour. One of the individuals current throughout the signing of the order advised the president that as many as 70 per cent of the H-1B visa goes to individuals from India.

Trump mentioned he favours a merit-based immigration system that brings in high-skilled folks that creates jobs contained in the US and never take jobs of Americans.

“We are going to be discussing very shortly an immigration bill, which covers this and many other things. It will be a very, very comprehensive bill. It’s a word that some people love, and some people hate. But it’d be very comprehensive only in the sense that it covered just about everything. It will be based on merit. It will cover territory that nobody would have thought could have ever been agreed to,” Trump mentioned.

The invoice, he mentioned, will probably be signed after the conference. “Immigration will be very merit based, but it’ll be, it’ll be great for the worker. And it’ll be great for people coming into our country, but coming into our country legally and loving the country and wanting to help our country as opposed to people coming in. And they don’t like our country,” Trump mentioned.