Trump signs executive order against hiring H-1B visa holders for federal contracts
Washington: In another huge blow to Indian IT professionals eyeing the US job market, President Donald Trump has signed an executive order asking federal agencies to hire Americans and preventing them from contracting or subcontracting foreign workers, mainly those with H-1B visas.
The move came over a month after the Trump administration on June 23 suspended the H-1B visas along with other types of foreign work visas until the end of 2020 to protect American workers in a crucial election year.
The H-1B visa, most sought-after among Indian IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.
"Today I am signing an executive order to ensure that the federal government lives by a very simple rule, hire American," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office of the White House on Monday before signing the order against hiring H-1B visa holders for federal contracts.Trump told reporters that his administration will not tolerate firing of hardworking Americans in the pursuit of cheap foreign labour.
"As we speak, we're finalising the H-1B regulation so that no American workers are replaced ever again. H-1B should be used for top highly paid talent to create American jobs, not as inexpensive labour programmes and destroy American jobs, said Trump, who was surrounded across the Cabinet Room table with individuals campaigning against job outsourcing.Prominent among them were Sara Blackwell, founder and president of Florida-based Protect US Workers organisation; Jonathan Hicks, a software engineer in the Tennessee Valley Authority; and Kevin Lynn, founder of Pennsylvania-based US Tech Workers.
The H-1B visa has an annual numerical limit cap of 65,000 visas each fiscal year as mandated by the Congress. The first 20,000 petitions filed on behalf of beneficiaries with a US master's degree or higher are exempt from the cap.
The executive order requires all federal agencies to complete an internal audit within 120 days and assess whether they are in compliance with the requirement that only US citizens and nationals are appointed to the competitive service.As a result, the Department of Labour will also finalise guidelines to prevent H-1B employers from moving H-1B workers to other employers' job sites to displace American workers.
Trump's order follows the federally-owned Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) announcement that it will outsource 20 percent of its technology jobs to companies based in foreign countries.TVA's action could cause more than 200 highly-skilled American tech workers in Tennessee to lose their jobs to low-wage, foreign workers hired on temporary work visas, the president said.
Outsourcing hundreds of workers is especially detrimental in the middle of a pandemic, which has already cost millions of Americans their jobs, the White House said in a statement.
Given the current climate of rampant intellectual property theft, outsourcing IT jobs that involve sensitive information could pose a national security risk, it said. According to the White House, Trump's actions will help combat employers' misuse of H-1B visas, which were never intended to replace qualified American workers with low-cost foreign labour.
One of the participants present during the signing of the order told the president that as many as 70 percent of the H-1B visa goes to people from India.
Trump said he favours a merit-based immigration system that brings in high-skilled people that creates jobs inside the US and not take away the jobs of Americans.
We are going to be discussing very shortly an immigration bill, which covers this and many other things. It will be a very, very comprehensive bill. It's a word that some people love, and some people hate. But it'd be very comprehensive only in the sense that it covered just about everything.
"It will be based on merit. It will cover territory that nobody would have thought could have ever been agreed to, Trump said.
The bill will be signed after the convention, Trump said, referring to the ruling Republican Party event later this month where he would be formally nominated as the party's candidate in the presidential election. Democratic Party's candidate and former US vice president Joe Biden will challenge Trump in the November 3 election.
Immigration will be very merit based, but it'll be, it'll be great for the worker. And it'll be great for people coming into our country, but coming into our country legally and loving the country and wanting to help our country as opposed to people coming in. And they don't like our country," Trump said.
Whether changes will be implemented and enforced remains to be seen, said Ron Hira, a Howard University professor who studies the H-1B visa regime.
Major Silicon Valley technology companies may be affected, as most have extensive contracts with the federal government and also obtain workers from staffing and technology firms, Hira was quoted as saying by The Mercury News.
The US government is by far the largest consumer of contracted information-technology work but data are scarce on how many H-1Bs may be working on government contracts or how much government contract work is being done overseas, the San Jose-based newspaper quoted Hira as saying.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Rupee falls 11 paise to 94.27 against US dollar in early trade
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee depreciated 11 paise to 94.27 against US dollar in early trade on Monday driven by persistent dollar demand and a broader shift toward safe-haven assets.
Forex traders said the Indian rupee has hit a rough patch, falling for five consecutive sessions, weighed down by a combination of factors such as the RBI loosening its grip on currency rules and rising oil prices caused by global tensions.
Moreover, investors are becoming cautious again, with foreign institutions pulling money out of the market after a brief period of buying amid rising geopolitical uncertainty.
At the interbank foreign exchange market the rupee opened at 94.25 against the US dollar, then lost some ground and touched 94.27 against the US dollar in initial trade, registering a fall of 11 paise over its previous close. On Friday, the rupee had settled at 94.16 against the American currency.
ALSO READ: Death toll in Mundathikode fireworks explosion rises to 16
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was down 0.09 per cent at 98.44.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading higher by 1.16 per cent at USD 106.55 per barrel in futures trade.
A mix of softer economic signals and renewed, even if fragile, hopes of diplomacy pulled the dollar lower again, CR Forex Advisors MD Amit Pabari said, adding that for Rupee, on one hand, a softer dollar offers relief. On the other, uncertainty remains the dominant force.
Meanwhile, India’s forex reserves have crossed USD 703 billion as of April 17, reflecting a consistent build-up of buffers.
"For now, the rupee continues to lean toward gradual weakness. Uncertainty remains the dominant force, shaping both global flows and local reactions," Pabari said.
He further noted that any dips are likely to be bought into, with the 92.80–93.20 zone acting as a strong support. On the upside, 93.50 to 94.50 is expected to define the near-term range.
On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share benchmark index Sensex was trading 518.96 points or 0.68 per cent higher at 77,183.17, while the broader Nifty was trading up 131.30 points or 0.55 per cent at 24,029.25.
Foreign Institutional Investors offloaded equities worth Rs 8,827.87 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.
