Biden to roll back Trump pandemic-era limits on immigrant and work visas, senior adviser says

President Biden plans to lift the strict limits on legal immigration that former President Donald Trump deemed necessary to protect American workers during the coronavirus-induced economic recession, according to a senior White House official.

Mr Biden plans to sign an executive order rescinding the proclamation that suspended some immigrant and work visas, Esther Olavarria told U.S. mayors over the weekend, according to a recording of the virtual meeting shared with CBS News. Olavarria is deputy director of the White House Home Policy Council and one of the president’s main immigration advisers.

The upcoming ordinance, Olavarria said, “would rescind Trump’s proclamations that banned the admission of immigrants and non-immigrants either seen as a financial burden on our health care system, or seen as a risk to the American labor market “.

“These were policies that ignored the decades, and indeed centuries, of contributions that immigrants have made to our economy, our society, our culture,” Olavarria said at the 89th Winter Meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors. “So we would reverse these policies and return to a country that welcomes immigrants and recognizes their contributions.”

It is unclear when Mr Biden intends to sign the proclamation, but his intention to release several immigration actions on Friday have been delayed. The White House made no comment.

Olavarria’s remarks represent the first indication of the Biden administration’s views on visa limits. During the campaign and transition, Mr Biden did not address the policy and his advisers did not pledge to revoke it.

Less than a month before Mr. Biden took office, Mr. Trump ordered a three-month extension of the restrictions, which were first adopted in April 2020 as a ban on some potential immigrants and expanded in June to also suspend several temporary work visas, like the H-1B program.

Mr. Trump’s proclamation, currently set to expire on March 31, bans the issuance of certain immigrant visas to people seeking to settle in the United States permanently through green card petitions filed by members from their American families or potential employers.

Spouses and children 21 and under of U.S. citizens are not subject to visa limits, which also exempt some healthcare workers battling the pandemic, as well as wealthy immigrants who agree to invest more than a million dollars in American projects.

Mr. Trump’s proclamation also froze the Diversity Visa Lottery, a program that allows people from under-represented countries, many in Africa, to relocate to the U.S. In September, a federal judge ruled ordered the government to issue visas to more than 9,000 applicants. immigrants who won the lottery last year, but still do not have the right to enter the United States under the proclamation.

The restrictions have also halted the issuance of several temporary visas used by people to work in the United States, including the H-1B program which is popular in the tech industry and H-2B visas for non-farm seasonal workers. . J-1 cultural exchange visas for au pairs and other short-term workers; visas for the spouses of holders H-1B and H-2B; and L visas allowing companies to relocate their employees to the United States have also been restricted.

The government currently does not have the right to apply visa limits to workers sponsored by several large US companies due to a court ruling in October.

Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst for the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute, said Mr. Trump’s visa restrictions during the pandemic era had “some persistence” because they were enacted for economic reasons. Although she believes the limits do not benefit American workers, Pierce predicted that lifting them would fuel some setback.

Convincing a segment of the American population that the restrictions need to be lifted will not be an easy task, Pierce said, citing the current unemployment rate of 6.7%.

“The economic crisis is still here and it’s a huge problem for the United States,” Pierce told CBS News. “Biden is going to have to present the reasons why he believes it is fair to rescind these proclamations despite their supposed benefits to the US economy.”

Pierce’s group estimates that more than 8,000 green card petitions were blocked between April and November 2020 due to Mr. Trump’s restrictions.

Olavarria said Mr Biden would also rescind a proclamation Mr Trump issued in October 2019 to allow the government to reject visa applications from immigrants who he says will not be able to afford health insurance or to cover medical expenses in the United States.

According to a snapshot of expected executive actions obtained by CBS News, Mr Biden is considering signing an additional directive directing officials to review “public charge” rules that allow consular and immigration officials to deny green cards and applications. visa applicants deemed to rely or risk relying on public assistance, such as food stamps.