suspend

Trump immigration ban to suspend OPT

The unemployment rate has skyrocketed from 3.5% to 14.7% since the economic lockdown due to COVID-19 in the United States. In a way to solve this “no job to work” issue, the Trump Administration has sent recommendations for limiting legal immigration including suspending OPT (Optional Practical Training) program during the COVID-19 pandemic. If this recommendation by the Department of Homeland Security is approved, it will be in effect from this month. Based on the article, Trump administration weighs suspending program for foreign students, prompting backlash from business tech by Julia Ainsley and Laura Strickler, let’s get into why the Whitehouse and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) want to suspend the OPT program in detail and how American business and university communities respond to this “Trump immigration ban” news.

Contents


A short history of the Trump immigration ban

In April 22, 2020, the President Trump announced the Proclamation Suspending Entry of Immigrants Who Present Risk to the U.S. Labor Market During the Economic Recovery Following the COVID-19 Outbreak, which suspends entry of non immigrant workers till the U.S. economy recovers in the face of COVID-19. Few weeks later, on the letter that Senator Tom Cotton and Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Josh Hawley of Missouri wrote to the White House on May 7, they insisted to keep suspending entry of new non-immigrant guests and to suspend OPT along with H-1B visas (for highly skilled workers) and H-2B visas (non-agricultural seasonal workers). Actually, the movement of so called “immigration hawks,” or “immigration hard-liners” to limit OPT goes all the way back to 2015. Stephen Miller, who now is a senior advisor to the President Trump, had helped Senator Jeff Sessions and Ted Cruz to write administrative recommendations to curb OPT. They also wanted to remove all employment opportunities for international students unless they have 10 years of work experiences.

In addition to this, in 2018, Stephen Miller had assisted other senators to ban Chinese international students to study in the United State which was denied by the U.S. Congress. Now the question arises, why “immigration hard-liners” plan out to take away employment opportunities from international graduates? There are two main reasons. As we can see in this letter to the Congress, the acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, doesn’t like the idea of providing work opportunities to non immigrants, because it limits job opportunities for Americans. Chad Wolf once said “We see some of these programs (OPT, CPT, STEM OPT) have been potentially abused in the past” in his speech. For him, employment authorization programs like CPT, OPT and STEM OPT work as a gateway for non immigrant students to “stay here and work.” Thus, they share a goal of decreasing overall immigration. On the other hand, Senator Tom Cotton argues that Chinese students bring back what they’ve learned in the U.S. to their home country. In this sense, he insisted to ban Chinese students to work in the technical fields and we know that now Chinese graduate students who intend to study or research about “military-civil fusion technology” cannot enter the U.S..

Related post: Chinese students and researchers visa ban by Trump

We urge you to continue to suspend new nonimmigrant guest workers for one year or until our new national unemployment figures return to normal levels whichever comes first.

At a time when millions of Americans and lawful permanent residents are graduating from college with severely limited job opportunities due to COVID-19, it makes absolutely no sense for the administration to continue a regulatory program that allows foreign graduates to take jobs Americans need.

NBC NEWS, TRUMP ADMINISTRATION WEIGHS SUSPENDING PROGRAM FOR FOREIGN STUDENTS, PROMPTING BACKLASH FROM BUSINESS TECH WRITTEN BY JULIA AINSLEY AND LAURA STRICKLER
Stephen Miller
Senior Advisor to the President, Stephen Miller

Responds of business and university leaders

As I mentioned above, this “Trump immigration ban” narrative is not new at all, rather it has come out repeatedly with various reasons behind. Todd Schulte, president of FWD.US – a pro-immigration reform group – also pointed this out. “Three years ago, when unemployment was at 4 percent, the signatories who were in the Senate at the time tried to slash legal immigration by more than 50 percent. … Today, as unemployment has skyrocketed, these senators now say we need to slash legal immigration in response to the COVID-19 crisis,” Schulte said. By the way, members of FWD. US are comprised of business and tech leaders including Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates and they make their voices to solve the failed immigration and criminal justice systems. Along with Schulte, Julie Schmid, executive director of the American Association of University Professors also stated that it has more harm than good. “Suspending or ending OPT makes no practical sense — it solves no problem, it reduces the quality of America’s higher education system, and it threatens the international exchange of ideas so vital to academic freedom,” said Schmid. In this perspective, for her, “as with Trump’s Muslim ban, this is just bigotry posing as concern for national security.”

FWD.US
FWD.US
Founders of FWD.US
Founders of FWD.US

To summary, the Department of Homeland Security recommends limiting immigration, which includes suspending employment authorization programs for students and graduates from all over the world, to protect American job seekers during the COVID-19. Business, tech and education leaders don’t agree that this anti-immigration policy can be a solution for the COVID-19 crisis. Instead, they believe this would threat U.S economy as well as academia. While many of immigration hawks are concerned about negative impacts that non immigrants cause to the U.S. labor market and U.S. economy, the research shows the opposite. As Julie Schmid mentioned, according to NAFSA’s research, international students had contributed around $41 billion to the U.S. economy only in the academic year 2018-2019. In next blog post, researches about economical impacts that international students bring in to the United States will be discussed.

References

One comment

  1. Pingback: Trump H1B visa suspension 6/24~12/31, 2020 - SEVIS SAVVY

Leave a Reply

Be Savvies

Related Posts

Visa refusal
F-1 签证

现任国际顾问和前领事官员的意见

Home SEVIS SAVVY X ARGO VISA 现任国际顾问和前领事官员的意见 作为留学生顾问,最让人心灰意冷的一件事就是,那些充满潜力的留学生最终因为签证被拒签而得不到赴美学习的机会。   几年前,我有一个学生工作者,他在学业和社会方面都取得了惊人的成绩。 后来,我很惊讶地得知这个学生的签证三次被拒签。   为了帮助留学生在签证面试中取得更好的成绩,现任留学生顾问、SEVIS SAVY总编辑和Argo Visa的前任领事官员聚在一起分享他们的专业知识。   如果你有即将到来的签证面试,一定要仔细阅读这篇文章,你就会离签证批准更近一步。   Disclosures: We sometimes use affiliate links in our content, meaning we may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. This won’t cost you anything but it helps us

Read More »
Interview waiver
F-1 签证

国际学生签证面试豁免

Home SEVIS SAVVY X ARGO VISA 国际学生签证面试豁免 自从新冠疫情大流行袭来,国务卿为非移民签证包括F-1签证和J-1签证持有者发布了现场面试豁免政策。   这个政策在2021到2022年之久延期了好几次,来协调日益增长的需求,符合条件的学生可以免去现场面试知道2023年底(2023年12月31日)。   此外,这项让正在就读并且符合条件的F-1学生和学术J-1签证持有者可以无需面试更换签证的政策已经无限期延期了。   这篇文章也会为国际学生概述那些签证面试和入境的必需文件。 声明:我们有时候会在我们的文章内容使用附属链接,意味着如果您点击链接并购买某些信息我们可能会得到佣金。这个过程不会额外收取您任何费用,但是可以帮助我们降低维护网站的成本。感谢您的支持帮助我们创作更多像这篇文章一样有用的信息。 Additionally, the Secretary of State has extended consular officers’ current ability to waive the in-person interview, through December 31, 2023, for the following other categories of nonimmigrant visas: Temporary Agricultural and Non-agricultural Workers (H-2 visas), Students

Read More »
Visa refusal
F-1 비자의 모든 것

매년 30~60%의 학생비자가 거절되는 이유

Home SEVIS SAVVY X ARGO VISA 현 유학생 어드바이저 및 전 비자 인터뷰 대사들의 현실 조언! 유학생 어드바이저로서 가장 아쉬운 상황 중 하나가 잠재력이 있는 유학생들이 비자가 거절되어 결국 미국에서 유학할 기회를 놓치는 것입니다.    오피스에서 함께 일했던 친구 중에 학업적으로나 여러 방면에서 뛰어난 친구가 있었는데 나중에 그 친구의 비자가

Read More »

AI-Powered CPT/OPT/STEM OPT Eligibility Checker

Made for you!