President Trump extended on Thursday the suspension of the pandemic era of certain immigrant and work visas, ensuring that his broad limits on legal immigration will remain in effect when Joe Biden takes office.
Through a proclamation issued 20 days before Induction Day, Trump ordered a three-month extension of visa restrictions, which were first enacted in April as a ban on some potential immigrants and expanded in June to also stop several programs temporary work.
Trump said the limits – which invoke broad presidential power to keep out foreigners considered “harmful to US interests” – are necessary to prevent new immigrants and temporary workers from competing with Americans for jobs during the pandemic economic recession. of the coronavirus.
“The effects of COVID-19 on the United States labor market and the health of American communities are a matter of continuing national concern,” wrote Trump in Thursday’s proclamation, which cited the unemployment rate and the pandemic-related restrictions. about companies. by the states and the increase in coronavirus infections since June.
Although he has promised to overturn some of the central parts of Trump’s immigration agenda, Biden has not yet said whether he intends to rescind visa restrictions. A representative of Mr. Biden’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr Trump’s proclamation prohibits the issuing of certain immigrant visas to people abroad who wish to move to the US permanently through green card petitions submitted by their family members or potential employers.
Spouses and minor children of US citizens are not subject to restrictions, which also exempt some health professionals who plan to combat coronavirus and immigrant investors who agree to invest more than $ 1 million in the United States
Mr Trump’s order also continues to suspend the diversity visa lottery, a program he has frequently criticized that allows people from underrepresented countries, most of them in Africa, to move to the U.S. In September, a federal judge in Washington, DC ordered the government to issue visas to more than 9,000 immigrants who won the lottery in 2020, but they remain barred from entering the United States according to the proclamation.
The restrictions also preclude several temporary visas used by people abroad to work in the United States, including the H-1B program, which is popular in the technology industry, and H-2B visas for seasonal non-farm workers. J-1 cultural exchange visas for au pair and other temporary workers; visas for spouses of H-1B and H-2B carriers; and L visas for companies to relocate employees to the United States will also continue to be suspended.
In early October, San Francisco-based district judge Jeffrey White banned the Trump administration from applying temporary work visa restrictions to foreign workers hired by several major American companies.