President Trump Signs Executive Order on Use of Foreign Workers by Federal Agencies

President Trump today signed an executive order meant to protect American workers and prevent US federal agencies from outsourcing jobs to foreign workers. The executive order directs federal agencies to conduct an internal audit to review contracts and hiring practices to assess any negative impact and effect of contractors’ use of temporary foreign labor or offshore work on US workers and to take corrective action as necessary. The executive order additionally directs the Secretaries of Labor and Homeland Security to take action, within forty-five days, to “protect United States workers from any adverse effects on wages and working conditions caused by the employment of H-1B visa holders at job sites (including third-party job sites), including measures to ensure that all employers of H-1B visa holders, including secondary employers, adhere to the requirements of section 212(n)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(n)(1)).” The executive action was reportedly prompted by the announcement from the federally-owned Tennessee Valley Authority that it will lay off sixty-two information technology workers and outsource data and programming work. We will continue to provide updates and developments regarding this executive order as appropriate especially as it relates to the H-1B visa program.

President Trump's Announcement on Suspending Immigration to the United States

UPDATE APRIL 23, 2020: President Trump signed a proclamation on suspending entry of immigrants to the US for 60 days.

President Trump announced late Monday night in a tweet that he plans to temporarily “suspend immigration” to the United States, a move he said is needed to protect American jobs and prevent the further spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), which he called “the Invisible Enemy.” White House officials reported that they are drafting an executive order that Trump could sign as early as today. At this time, it is unclear what exactly such an executive order would accomplish. Last month, the State Department canceled most routine immigrant and nonimmigrant visa appointments at US Embassies/Consulates abroad, effectively shutting down nearly all kinds of new travel to the US for nonimmigrants and immigrants. The US has also already enacted restrictions on international travel from Europe, China, and other countries affected by COVID-19, and has placed strict controls at the country’s land borders.

The State Department also stopped all processing for refugee resettlement, while citizenship ceremonies have been suspended as well as in-person services by US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS). It is unclear if the order will simply extend these policies already in effect or if it will go further to suspend Green Card and visa petitions filed by employers.  Once the order is issued, we would expect to have a clearer idea of what to expect. We will publish additional updates on the executive order as soon as we receive them.   

UPDATE APRIL 22, 2020:  Yesterday, President Trump provided some additional details about his proposed immigration ban. He indicated that foreign nationals would not be able to file immigrant visa applications for sixty days. Those with nonimmigrant visas (like O-1, H-1B, TN, E-3, P-1, J-1, F-1, etc.) would not be affected by the restrictions. Since the president has not signed the final order yet, some of this may change but we will continue to update this page as we receive guidance and information.

CNN: "1 in 10 eligible voters in 2020 are immigrants. That's a record high"

As voters go to the polls today to vote in the “Super Tuesday” democratic presidential primary, many of those voters could be immigrants. More than 23 million US immigrants will be eligible to vote in the 2020 presidential election, a record high, according to a Pew Research Center report based on Census Bureau data. The report, released last Wednesday, notes that the size of the immigrant electorate has nearly doubled since 2000 with immigrants making up roughly 10% of the nation’s overall electorate. The report notes that most immigrant eligible voters are either Hispanic or Asian with immigrants from Mexico making up the single largest group with sixteen percent of foreign-born voters.

The increase in immigrant voting population coincides at a time when immigration policy issues are a key consideration for many voters. "Many of the administration's proposed policy changes, such as expanding the U.S.-Mexico border wall and limiting legal immigration, have generated strong, polarized reactions from the public," the Pew Research Center says. "These proposals may also affect how immigrants see their place in America and the potential role they could play in the 2020 presidential election.”

The New Yorker: “How the Trump Administration Uses the 'Hidden Weapons' of Immigration Law”

Isaac Chotiner, a staff writer at The New Yorker, interviewed Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, the policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, about President Trump’s impact on American immigration policy, from travel bans to changing how asylum claims are made at the US-Mexico border. Reichlin-Melnick says that the Trump administration has had success in finding “the hidden weapons in existing immigration law” and using “them to the full extent, which no one had ever imagined would ever be done.”

In the interview, Reichlin-Melnick covers a variety of topics, including the international agreements that the Trump administration has made with Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, which have re-shaped who is arriving at the US-Mexico border; the travel bans, which are essentially nationality-based immigration restrictions; the child separations that are still ongoing; and, in particular, the “humanitarian catastrophe” happening at the U.S.-Mexico border because of the so-called “Migrant Protection Protocols” (MPP).

As Reichlin-Melnick explains, the MPP program is supposedly to increase access to court hearings but “what it is doing is forcing sixty-two thousand-plus asylum seekers to wait in appallingly dangerous conditions with no hope that they’ll ever have the opportunity to get a lawyer and virtually impossible chances of ever winning asylum, regardless of the strength of their claims.” Because of MPP, migrants have been subject to kidnapping and serious crimes like rape and torture. Reichlin-Melnick notes: “I often like to say the Trump Administration realized that Americans would rise up in anger when it saw our own government officials doing horrific things to people at the border, so what they did is they exported that—they outsourced the violence, and the crime, and the danger to the cartels in Mexico and let the cartels do the deterrence work that our agents were no longer able to do.”