United States’ President, Mr. Donald Trump extended the ban on immigration, which is blocking many ‘green card’ applicants and temporary foreign workers from getting into the country. The extension of ban on new green cards and work visas until months after he leaves office, citing continued weakness in the United States’ labor market due to the coronavirus pandemic while a federal appeals court sided with him on a rule that requires new immigrants to have their own health insurance.
The extension of the ban clearly impacts the several H-1B visa holders who had been issued in April, which were expected to be effective on October 1, 2020. In October 2019, a federal judge in California blocked Trump’s ban stating it as an “irreparable harm” to the businesses. The ban was on foreign guest workers as it applied to hundreds of thousands of U.S. businesses that fought the policy in court.
On Thursday, Mr. Donald Trump signed a proclamation that stated the extension of the ban on work based visa’s and green cards to March 31 immigration restrictions he first put into effect in April 2019 and later on renewed in June for the protection of American jobs and the visa bans were set to expire on December 31. Trump issued the bans in the form of presidential proclamations that could be quickly undone. The proclamation said,
“The 2019 Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) continues to significantly disrupt Americans’ livelihoods. While the November overall unemployment rate in the US of 6.7% reflects a marked decline from its April high, there were still 9,834,000 fewer seasonally adjusted nonfarm jobs in November than in February of 2020.”
Trump said that these measures are needed to protect the workers of United States amid the pandemic battered economy. Trump said,
“The effects of COVID-19 on the United States labor market and on the health of American communities is a matter of ongoing national concern, and the considerations present” in the previous proclamations “have not been eliminated,”
The extension of visa ban to March means United States president-elect Joe Biden may have to take a tough call on whether to cancel it and risk being seen as anti-American labor or let it lapse in March, which goes against his more liberal pro-immigration stance. The extension of ban to March means the curbs will be in place when President-elect Mr. Joe Biden will take charge as president on January 20. Moreover, Mr. Joe Biden disapproved of the ban and the restrictions but did not say whether he would immediately reverse them.
Whereas, the immigration attorney Cyrus Mehta tweeted that
“The visa ban extension contradicts its rationale to protect US jobs after Trump’s recent message that the unemployment rate is below 6.7%. It is Trump’s last gasp to hurt immigration that benefits the US and is promoting economic recovery,”
The United States’ Chamber of Commerce, the biggest business lobbying organization in the country has criticized the bans as damaging to the nation’s economy. So, the chamber and other trade groups have sued to block the restrictions.
On the contrary, Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News is among the companies that have expressed their support for a court order blocking the policy of Trump. While several Indian and US tech companies were not in the support of the ban in June, because it hasn’t had a very significant impact on business because many employees are still working remotely.
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