President Donald Trump has ordered US federal agencies to tighten up a US visa program, which brings high-skilled immigrants to the country as he attempts to fulfill his election campaign vows to put ‘America first’.
The President signed an executive order on Tuesday, to enforce and review the H-1B US visa, which is particularly popular with the tech industry, while visiting the tool manufacturer, Snap-On Inc in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The order, known as ‘Buy American and Hire American’, also wants to see changes in US government procurement, to increase purchases of US products in federal contracts. Helping US steelmakers is one of the order’s intentions.
The move shows, again, that Trump is willing to use executive orders to fulfill the promises he made to the American public last year, during his election campaign. Few details were given by senior officials on how the order will be implemented, but Presidential aides have expressed reservations on how H-1B US visas seem to be primarily given to low-paid positions with outsourcing companies, often based in India. They claim that this takes jobs away from US citizens, and are in favor a more merit-based scheme to allow the US visas to go to more high-skilled immigrants.
Trump says that there is currently widespread abuse of the immigration system, enabling overseas workers, who are given lower wages, to replace Americans from every walk of life.