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President Trump on Thursday extended a pandemic-era suspension of certain immigrant and work visas, ensuring that his sweeping limits on legal immigration will remain in place when Joe Biden is sworn in.
By a proclamation issued 20 days before inauguration day, Mr Trump ordered a three-month extension of visa restrictions, which were first passed in April as a ban on certain potential immigrants and extended in June also to terminate several temporary work programs.
Mr Trump said the limits – which invoke broad presidential power to bar the entry of foreigners deemed “prejudicial to the interests” of the United States – are necessary to prevent new immigrants and temporary workers from competing with Americans for jobs during the economic recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
“The effects of COVID-19 on the labor market in the United States and on the health of American communities are a matter of continuing national concern,” Mr. Trump wrote in Thursday’s proclamation, which cited the unemployment rate and pandemic-related restrictions on businesses. by states and the increase in coronavirus infections since June.
Although he has vowed to overturn some of the centerpieces of Mr. Trump’s immigration program, Mr. Biden has yet to say whether he intends to lift visa restrictions. A representative for Mr. Biden’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Trump’s proclamation bans the issuance of certain immigrant visas to people overseas seeking to settle in the United States permanently through green card petitions filed by their American family members or potential employers.
Spouses and children 21 and under of U.S. citizens are not subject to the restrictions, which also exempt some healthcare workers who intend to fight the coronavirus and immigrant investors who agree to invest more. a million dollars in the United States.
Mr. Trump’s order also extends the suspension of the Diversity Visa Lottery, a program he has frequently criticized that allows people from under-represented countries, many in Africa, to settle in states. In September, a federal judge in Washington, DC ordered the government to issue visas to more than 9,000 potential immigrants who won the lottery in 2020, but they remain barred from entering the United States under the proclamation.
The restrictions also stop several temporary visas used by people overseas to work in the United States, including the H-1B program which is popular in the tech industry and the 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 for companies wishing to relocate their employees to the United States will also continue to be suspended.
In early October, San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White banned the Trump administration from applying temporary work visa restrictions to foreign workers hired by several large U.S. companies.
Immigrant advocates called on the new Biden administration to revoke Mr. Trump’s visa limits immediately in January.
“Too many families have been separated and too many dreams have been shattered by this illegal ban,” said Karen Tumlin, founder of the Justice Action Center and a lawyer challenging the visa restrictions. “We will continue to challenge this ban in court and urge the Biden-Harris administration to repeal all of President Trump’s xenophobic presidential proclamations, including this ban, on the first day of their administration.”
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