Washington, Jun 23 (UNI) US President Donald Trump on Tuesday suspended H1B, H-2B, J and L non-immigrant visa programs till year-end citing that the additional workforce that comes through these visas presents a significant threat to employment opportunities for US nationals affected by the extraordinary economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.
The suspension will be effective till December 31.
"Excess labor supply is particularly harmful to workers at the margin between employment and unemployment — those who are typically “last in” during an economic expansion and “first out” during an economic contraction", the President said in a statement.
The order comes into effect on June 24 and is expected to impact several American and Indian companies who were issued H-1B visas by the US government for the fiscal year 2021 beginning October 1.
Mr Trump said that the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has significantly disrupted Americans’ livelihoods.
Since March 2020, United States businesses and their workers have faced extensive disruptions while undertaking certain public health measures necessary to flatten the curve of COVID-19 and reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
The overall unemployment rate in the United States nearly quadrupled between February and May of 2020 — producing some of the most extreme unemployment ever recorded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while the May rate of 13.3 percent reflects a marked decline from April, millions of Americans remain out of work.
UNI XC JAL 1712