Trump's latest ban on nonimmigrant work visas
Today, June 22, 2020, President Trump issued an executive order that will stop the issuance of new H-1B specialist worker visas, H-4 visas for dependents H-1B workers, L-1 transfer visas, as well as J-1 exchange visas, and H-2B visas for non-agricultural temporary workers through the end of 2020. If last week’s immigration story was the David vs. Goliath story of the DACA recipients winning against Trump in the Supreme Court and stalling the cancellation of the DACA program, this week’s immigration story is the “Clash of the Titans”, since President Trump is now taking on the entire high technology industry and multinational companies that heavily use the H-1B and L-1 visas to employ talented foreign workers.
While the full details have not yet emerged, it appears that the holders of the above-mentioned visas, who are already in the U.S., can continue to extend their status, but it is not clear whether they will be able to obtain a visa at a U.S. consulate abroad for international travel, or whether holders of those visas, who are currently outside of the U.S., will be blocked from returning to the U.S.
My prediction is that technology companies and multinational companies will be filing lawsuits in federal courts across the U.S. to seek injunctions in order to block the implementation of the executive order because many employers have petitions for the above-mentioned visa types already pending with USCIS. This is a particularly serious matter for employers petitioning for H-1B visas, since such petitions can be filed only once a year, namely in April. This will provide a good argument to justify an injunction for blocking implementation of the executive order on the grounds that implementation would cause irreparable harm to U.S. employers and undermine their competitiveness.
We will have a follow-up article on this executive order once the full details emerge and once the legal challenges to it emerge.