The Biden administration lets a Trump-era ban on some foreign work visas expire.
April 6, 2021
President Biden will let a ban on certain temporary foreign work visas expire on Wednesday, according to two administration officials. This will reopen a labor pool that was cut off by his predecessor during the coronavirus pandemic.
Former President Donald J. Trump blocked visas for a variety of jobs last June, including those for computer programmers and engineers who enter the United States on H-1B visas, students on work-study programs, as well as seasonal workers in the hospitality industry.
The previous administration said at the time that the ban on temporary work visas, as well as a separate block on green cards, was needed to protect employment opportunities for Americans who lost their jobs during the fall of the economy as a result of the pandemic. In spite of this, numerous studies have shown that immigrants actually benefit the economy and banning them would harm industries in the United States that utilize skilled workers and talent from around the world. Business leaders openly criticized the orders as blocking critically needed employees willing to work jobs that Americans are not willing to do or capable of doing.
After business associations filed a lawsuit against the order on foreign workers, a federal judge in California in October lifted the ban on a large number of the work visas.