While President Trump started with a radically harsh action against immigration on his return to the office this week, he left a gap that appeared last month among some of his most influential supporters about the role of skilled foreign employees in the American labor market.
The split on the H-1B Visa program, with which competent employees such as software engineers in the United States can work, has set up hard immigration opponents against some of Mr. Trump's most prominent financiers in the technical industry, who say that They trust the program because they cannot find enough qualified American employees.
It is unclear where Mr. Trump will land. He promised in his first term to end H-1B-VISA, but last month he called it 'a great program'.
How does the H-1B Visa program work?
The congress adopted legislation that the H-1B program created in 1990, when a shortage of workers Opdoed. When President George Bush signed it in the law, he said that the program would “encourage immigration of exceptionally talented people, such as scientists, engineers and educators.”
Employers use the Visa – which are valid for three years and can be expanded – to hire foreign employees with specialized skills, mainly in science and technology, to fill openings for which American employees with similar skills cannot be found.
Employers submit a petition to the government on behalf of a foreign employee who wants to hire them, describing the job and the qualifications of the selected person to fill it.
The H-1B program grants the temporary status in the United States, not in the residence. Many employers, however, sponsor employees with H-1B-VISA for a green card, making them on their way to US citizenship.
Who are the workers?
The congress makes 65,000 H-1B-VISA available each year for employees with a bachelor's degree or equivalent, and 20,000 more for people with a master's degree or higher. Universities and research organizations are exempt from those caps.
Many of the employees who have received the Visa are software, computer programmers and others in the technology industry. Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Apple and IBM belonged to the companies that employed the most H-1B visa holders last year, according to the American citizenship and immigration services.
But it's not just a Silicon Valley story. H-1B recipients work in other professions, including education, health care and production.
There is no limit for every country, and a vast majority between about two-thirds and slightly more than three-quarters of receivers comes from one: India.
Replace H-1b holders American employees?
Employers must confirm that they have searched for qualified domestic candidates and that an H-1B employee will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of American employees.
The program requires that employers pay H-1B employees, at least the average wage for the job and the city where it is based, or the average wage of employees born in America who do the same work. Companies are forbidden to pay H-1B employees less than other employees with comparable skills and qualifications. Nevertheless, about 60 percent of the positions “far below” the local median wage for the occupation in 2019 paid, according to the Economic Policy Institute, referring to the “broad discretion” of the labor department to set the wage levels of H-1B.
Critics say that employers often use H-1B-VISA to hire employees who are willing to accept lower salaries than Americans, and there have been episodes in which the program has been used to make immigrants to do jobs that American employees had done.
In 2015, around 250 technology workers in Walt Disney World received near Orlando, FLA. located in India. Similar episodes in that year found employees of Toys “R” US and the New York Life Insurance Company. However, some studies have shown that the Visa program helps to promote innovation and growth, which leads to more jobs, also for employees born in the US.
How did the Republicans issue divided and where is President Trump?
A gap broke out among Republicans in December about how much tolerance, if applicable, the incoming Trump administration should have for immigrants who enter the country in H-1B-VISA.
Elon Musk, a former H-1B holder, wrote on X that the American companies that American companies have to do “simply do not exist in America in sufficient quantity.” Mr. Musk's electric car, Tesla, has obtained 724 from the Visa this year.
Vivek Ramaswamy, the former Republican presidential candidate who recently concluded with a cost -saving initiative of the government that Mr. Trump had asked him to lead the Lord Musk, the American culture blamed for creating people who are suitable for competent technical Functions.
Among those on the other side of the debate were Laura Loomer, the extreme right-wing activist, and Stephen K. Bannon, a long-term Trump confidence. In December, Mr Bannon organized influencers and researchers on his popular podcast “War Room”, who criticized “Big Tech Oligarchs” for supporting the H-1B program.
In 2020, Mr. Trump signed an executive order that temporarily suspended new H-1B-VISA, which he had said to “only go to” only the most competent and best-paid applicants and should never be used to be American employees replaced. ” After a federal court that had taken down order, the Trump administration created the eligible rules for the Visa and companies forced to pay higher salaries to H-1B holders. A federal court also rejected some of those rules, including the salary requirement.
At the end of December Mr. Trump seemed to weigh the debate and said that he had often used the program as a businessman. “I have been a believer in H-1B,” he told the New York Post. “I have often used it. It is a great program. “
In fact, Mr. Trump seems to have used the H-1B visa program Zorgzaig. He has been a frequent and old user of the comparable H-2B Visa program, which is for unskilled employees such as gardeners and housekeepers, as well as the H-2a program, for agricultural workers. That visa allows an employee to stay in the country for 10 months.
