Forbes: “USCIS Documents Reveal The Sources Of Trump H-1B Visa Restrictions”

Newly released documents from US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) explain how government policies have increased H-1B denials and Requests for Evidence (RFEs). These government documents, previously hidden from the public and only released after a FOIA lawsuit by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), demonstrate that USCIS adjudicators have been “directed to restrict approvals of H-1B petitions without the legal or regulatory authority to justify those decisions,” according to Stuart Anderson, executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy, a non-partisan public policy research organization. These restrictions have led to a decrease in highly skilled foreign nationals in the US.

Jonathan Wasden, a partner with Wasden Banias LLC, who has filed lawsuits regarding H-1B adjudications, told Anderson that in the government documents “noncontroversial matters” are supported by statute and regulation but their most “controversial policies” including “overreaching into Department of Labor regulations, requiring guaranteed work assignments and the employer-employee rule” do not have such citations. “It appears that the agency made dramatic changes to H-1B policy without grounding those changes in any law,” he said. “Attorneys have known this is happening in practice, but to see they don’t even attempt to create a facade of statutory support is shocking.” AILA President Marketa Lindt noted: “The documents released by USCIS reveal the way the agency has shifted its focus in these adjudications, creating more obstacles for U.S. businesses to hire and retain the talent they need.”

Elite Daily: “‘OITNB’ Star Laura Gómez Tells Real-Life Immigrants’ Stories On-Screen & Off"

At the end of season 6 of the hit show Orange Is the New Black, Laura Gómez’s character, Bianca Flores, was transferred from Litchfield Penitentiary to an Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center, and in season 7, the show dealt with her experience in detention. "I felt, in a way, it was an interesting way of working around my anxieties at the moment," Gómez, herself an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, said to Elite Daily. “This is affecting us one way or another. I thought it was a wonderful way for me to canonize all this and to find a place to put it. And we all knew we had a big responsibility.”

Inspired in part by her work on Orange is the New Black, Gómez wanted to highlight the experiences and accomplishments of real-life immigrants. Under the hashtag #ImmigrantStoriesByLauraGomez, Gómez has profiled actors, LGBTQ activists, novelists, musicians, entrepreneurs, and young students. "I just had a feeling that this was a way to use my platform, which has been amplified by this show to comment on positive aspects of immigrants, the way I know it, the way I experience it," Gómez said. "I felt this could be my way of humanizing us and giving a little profile of a journey of an immigrant and a positive impact in American society."

Washington Post: “Japan is a Trumpian paradise of low immigration rates. It’s also a dying country.”

Japan is facing a population crisis, writes political commenter Francisco Toro, and is a stark example of what happens when a country heavily reduces or limits immigration. The country has an aging population where native-born people’s death rates outnumber births, a shortage of new workers along with slow economic growth, and approximately eight million vacant houses.

Although the country’s politicians have historically opposed higher rates of immigration, the government has recently made more work permits available to foreign workers. Even so, the government forces most temporary foreign workers to frequently apply for extensions, prevents many from bringing their families, and in general has limited efforts to welcome and integrate them into society. “Japan proves that the choice between homogeneity and diversity is real,” Toro writes. “It’s just that homogeneity leads to decline, while diversity offers at least a chance of ongoing vitality and prosperity.”