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 minor children of US citizens are not subject to the restrictions, which are also an exception for some health professionals who want to fight the coronavirus and immigrant investors who agree to invest more than $ 1 million in the US
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, most of them in Africa, to relocate 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.