President Trump on Thursday extended a suspension of certain pandemic-era immigrant and work visas so that his sweeping legal immigration limits remain in effect when Joe Biden is sworn in.
Through a proclamation issued 20 days before the inauguration day, Mr. Trump ordered a three-month extension of the visa restrictions, first introduced in April as a ban on some would-be immigrants and expanded in June to include several stop temporary work programs.
Mr Trump has said that the limits – invoking broad presidential power to block the entry of foreigners considered “detrimental to the interests” of the US – 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 US labor market and on the health of American communities are a matter of ongoing national concern,” Trump wrote in Thursday’s proclamation, citing the unemployment rate, and pandemic-related restrictions for businesses. states and the increase in the number of coronavirus infections since June.
While he has pledged to topple some of the key points of Mr Trump’s immigration agenda, Mr Biden has yet to say whether he intends to lift the 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 permanently move to the US through green card petitions filed by their US relatives or prospective employers.
Spouses and children aged 21 or under of U.S. citizens are not subject to the restrictions, which are also an exception for some health professionals who plan to fight the coronavirus and immigrant investors who agree to invest more than $ 1 million in the U.S.
Mr Trump’s order also continues the suspension of the diversity visa lottery, a program he has often criticized that allows people from under-represented countries, many of them in Africa, to move to the US. 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 the proclamation says they will not be allowed into the US.
The restrictions also end several temporary visas used by people abroad to work in the US, including the H-1B program popular in the engineering sector and H-2B visas for non-farm seasonal workers . J-1 visas for cultural exchange for au pairs and other temporary workers; visas for spouses of H-1B and H-2B holders; and L visas for companies to move workers to the US will also continue to be suspended.
In early October, San Francisco-based US District Judge Jeffrey White banned the Trump administration from applying temporary work visa restrictions to foreign workers hired by several major US companies.
Immigrant advocates called on the incoming Biden administration to immediately revoke Mr Trump’s visa limits in January.
“Too many families have been divorced and too many dreams have been crushed by this illegal ban,” said Karen Tumlin, the founder of the Justice Action Center and a lawyer who challenges visa restrictions. “We will continue to challenge this ban in court and urge the Biden-Harris administration to withdraw all xenophobic presidential proclamations of President Trump, including this ban, on the first day of their administration.”