The immigration laws in the United States are clearly going to undergo some important changes and be a key issue in President-Elect Donald Trump’s administration. There have been some iterations of support for skilled immigration, but most of Mr. Trump’s rhetoric to date has been about increased vetting of foreign nationals entering the United States, curbs on foreign worker admissions and increased obligations on employers of foreign workers.
The President-Elect’s website supports selecting immigrants based on merit, skills, and likelihood of success in the United States. However, he has called for immigration controls that would prioritize the hiring of U.S. workers. He has advocated for reform of the H-1B program, though he has not yet made specific proposals. President-Elect Trump has indicated that he would seek to renegotiate or withdraw from key trade agreements, many of which contain provisions to streamline immigration between the United States and trade partners.
He is also said to favor greater controls and increased screening of applicants for visas and green cards, which would include applicants for employment-based nonimmigrant visas and permanent residence. He clearly supports a moratorium on visa issuance in countries where adequate screening cannot be guaranteed. It is important to note that most changes in the immigration laws require congressional approval and changes could take months if not years to implement.
It is also a concern that President-elect Trump has promised a major attack on the undocumented population. He has promised deportation of 2-3 million people. Doing such a thing would probably require machine guns in the midst of our cities. It would require the support of large cities and hopefully stopped by states like California and New York. We would hope that the Mayors of big cities would do their best to resist such attacks on their communities. In any event, it could take The Trump Administration several years to carry out such operations.
It will be easier to attack immigrants who are lawfully present. We can expect the key positions affecting immigration — Attorney General, Secretary of DHS and Heads of USCIS, ICE and CBP — to be filled with those steeped in anti-immigration ideology or outright racism–veiled or otherwise. We can expect a broad and deep attack on immigration itself and the people who are here legally are the easiest to attack. The Republican Party may just decide that it doesn’t need urban immigrant communities or employers.
Our best hope rests with President-Elect Trump himself, who is a businessman, who has hired many skilled and unskilled immigrant and non-immigrant workers, and whose wife is a former H-1b holder and immigrant. It is our hope that he can view legal immigration in a positive light and propose changes that would actually benefit highly skilled workers and companies looking to invest in the United States.
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