Google, Amazon condemn Trump order cutting off foreign worker visas

Enlarge / Illustration of a green card sitting on an open passport. Green card holders are not currently affected by the new order, but the administration says immigration-restricting order will leave 525,000 jobs vacant this year for US citizens to fill. (credit: Epoxydude | Getty Images)

Tech firms are pushing back against the Trump administration after President Donald Trump yesterday issued an order suspending the issuance of a wide range of work visas, including the type that allows high-skilled workers and their families to enter the country and work for American technology companies.

Monday's proclamation renews and expands on an earlier order issued in April.

Both the April and June orders claim that admitting workers from other nations at this time would put the United States at an economic disadvantage while the nation tries to recover from massive job losses related to COVID-19. The new order extends the existing limitations on immigration into the US through at least the end of the year, and it additionally prohibits several categories of non-immigrant worker visas from being issued in the back half of 2020. The visas now being limited include types H-1B, which applies to high-skilled degree-holding workers; H-2B, which applies to temporary workers in non-agricultural industries; J, which applies to exchange visitors, both educational and professional; and L, which applies to individuals transferring to a US location within the company for which they already work.

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