This article was published by Pulse.NG on June 23, 2020 and features commentary from Reaz Jafri.
Major tech companies including Amazon, Uber, Google parent Alphabet, and Twitter decried President Donald Trump’s freeze on a range of immigration work visas Monday, calling it “unbelievably bad policy” that will undermine America’s economic recovery and its competitiveness.
Trump issued a proclamation Monday suspending the issuance of a variety of visas that allow foreigners to work in the US for a limited amount of time. The administration said the suspension, which affects H-1B, H-2B, H-4, J-1, and L-1 visas, was necessary to protect American workers at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has pushed unemployment to its highest level in decades.
The order extends restrictions made in April that put a 60-day freeze on work visas.
Tech companies rely on H1-B visas in particular to import “high-skilled” engineering talent from around the world, helping them maintain Silicon Valley’s competitive edge in an increasingly global market. Last year, Google and Amazon were each granted roughly 9,000 H1-B visa applications.
Raez Jafri, Dasein Advisors, was quoted in the article, ‘Amazon, Google, Twitter, and other tech companies are speaking out against Trump’s freeze on immigrant work visas.’
…”My personal opinion is that we’re not going to be going back to any type of easing of things, even as things settle down,” Reaz Jafri, an immigration lawyer at Withers Worldwide, told Business Insider”…
