Amazon, Apple, Facebook say Trump's blocking of H-1B visas harms US
Amazon, Apple and Facebook are among tech industry titans and organisations signing onto a court filing saying US President Donald Trump’s move blocking visas for skilled staff hurts the country.
The brief was filed in federal court Monday to get a suit by the united states Chamber of Commerce and trade groups against a proclamation issued by Trump in June halting visas for various types of guest workers including very skilled talent sought by tech firms.
“The president’s suspension of non-immigrant visa programs, supposedly to ‘protect’ American workers, actually harms those workers, their employers, and the economy,” the brief backed by more than 50 tech organizations and organisations argued.
“Beyond the overwhelming data undermining the proclamation’s purported rationale, the administration’s actions send a fundamentally un-American message to those abroad who might otherwise have brought their skills and ingenuity to the United States.”
Trump’s proclamation suspended a group of non-immigrant visa programs, including H-1B visas relied on by many technology businesses to generate engineers.
The suspension is to last through this season and for as long after “as necessary” beneath the justification of earning jobs open to citizens amid financial disruption due to the pandemic, in line with the filing.
Evidence, however, overwhelmingly indicates that suspension of the visa programs will “stifle innovation, hinder growth, and finally harm US workers, businesses, and the economy more broadly in irreparable ways,” the filing argued.
Instead of safeguarding jobs for all of us citizens, the proclamation “all but ensures” organizations should hire abroad essentially moving jobs to other countries, the companies said.
Tech industry competitors in Canada, China, India and other countries are “pouncing on the chance” to attract skilled staff being shunned by the united states, the filing contended.
“Predictably, other countries are poised to benefit from the US’s wholesale suspension of nonimmigrant visas, the filing argued.
“Global rivals are aggressively updating their immigration systems to attract skilled workers.”
Others joining the petition included Microsoft, Twitter, Uber and many trade groups for the tech sector like the Information Technology Industry Council.
