President Trump’s suspension of a number of foreign visa worker programs is a “bold action” that will “give relief to Americans” in the midst of the Chinese coronavirus crisis, Center for Immigration Studies Director of Policy Jessica Vaughan says.
On Monday, Trump expanded an executive order to halt the H-1B, H-4, H-2B, L-1, L-2, and J-1 visa programs while more than 40 million Americans are unemployed and underemployed.
Altogether, along with regulatory reforms to asylum loopholes and the H-1B visa program, the move is expected to free up about 600,000 U.S. jobs for Americans that would have otherwise have been filled by foreign visa workers.
In an exclusive interview with SiriusXM Patriot’s Breitbart News Tonight, Vaughan said Trump’s “gut instincts” to reduce foreign labor market competition against Americans amid mass unemployment is “a pretty big deal.”
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“This is a bold action, and needed I might add … with so many Americans out of work and recent legal immigrants as well,” Vaughan said. “They actually have a higher unemployment rate at this point than Americans do.”
“This is a pretty big deal,” Vaughan continued. “These are the biggest guestworker categories that have caused the most problems for American workers who’ve been displaced by them. And these are the kind of jobs that are most in-demand now, not only for people looking for temporary seasonal work … but also, recent college graduates and other Americans working in technology and knowledge jobs that have been displaced by these guest worker programs all along.”
Vaughan said the move is “really, really helpful” and “very important” for unemployed Americans.
“I think the president went with his gut instincts that it needed to be more bold rather than less and cover the biggest categories and go to the end of the year, not just right up to right before the election … to look tough,” Vaughan said. “This review was a concession for the people who are advocating on behalf of the businesses who have the nerve to go around trying to convince people and saying that we still need foreign workers with 40,000,000 Americans out of work.”
The Chamber of Commerce, Big Tech executives, the donor class, and the Republican establishment have opposed Trump’s decision to provide job and wage relief to Americans during the crisis.
Trump, though, has overwhelming support from the majority of GOP voters and swing states.
This month, majorities in 10 swing states — Pennsylvania, Arizona, Florida, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Maine, and Minnesota — said overall immigration should be reduced while tens of millions of Americans are jobless.
Every year, the U.S. admits about 1.2 million legal immigrants on green cards to permanently resettle in the country. In addition, another 1.4 million foreign workers are admitted every year to take American jobs. Often, Americans are fired and replaced by foreign visa workers. Many are forced to train their foreign replacements.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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