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Trump Wields Magic Wand For H-1B Visas, Legal Migration
My hope in his presidency to favor skilled migration stems from the simple premise that President-elect Trump always wants to challenge the status quo, which the H1 Visa Program and the Green Card allocation model require.
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Representative Image / Canva
Over the past two months, a lot has been discussed about the future of the H-1B visa program and the fate of the legally skilled immigrants on the wait in the Green Card Backlog since President Donald Trump emerged victorious in the presidential elections held on November 5, 2024.
In addition to the speculative and fear-mongering WhatsApp forwards that went into 24x7 circulation, a fiery debate among MAGA supporters broke out and sustained for a few straight days on X (formerly Twitter). People discussed threadbare the facts and figures from both sides, pro and anti the H1B visa program in the MAGA Camp, with some of the anti-H-1B statements loaded with serious racial overtones, which are condemnable.
H-1B has become a very contentious topic in the past decade where everyone who agrees or disagrees with the visa program’s existence, at the minimum, expects reforming the program significantly and put in place guardrails to protect the American workers and temporary non-immigrant workers arriving on H1 visas from undercutting and exploitation, respectively.
As much as it is feared, there is also enormous hope in President Trump’s next four years as he has stated unambiguously that the U.S. job market has a massive need for skilled STEM workers who intend to arrive legally and study/work in the United States.
My hope in his presidency to favor skilled migration stems from the simple premise that President-elect Trump always wants to challenge the status quo, which the H1 Visa Program and the Green Card allocation model require. Hardly 14 percent get their hand on the Green Cards after getting their education and experience scrutinized. 86 percent don’t have any such checks at all.
His challenge to the status quo had earlier resulted in the awarding of green cards to nearly 300,000 people of Indian origin stuck in the decades-long backlog.
Among the OECD nations, per the data capture and analytics done in 2020 by Center for Security & Emerging Technology (CSET), graduates in STEM degrees constitute only 20 percent of the overall students, with 800K headcount coming out annually from the U.S. universities. In contrast, China stands at 41 percent with 3.5 million students and India at 30 percent with 2.55 million annual STEM graduates respectively.
Reforming legal immigration--when Trump gets to shake up the status quo with due consideration to statistics like the one above in his decision-making-- to fill gaps and accelerate the U.S. economy will require skilled migrants arriving from any part of the planet and calling the United States their home and work for its success, delivering next-gen technology and putting their passionate, entrepreneurial skills to work.
There must be prioritization, incentivization and strong encouragement given to school students in the U.S. to pursue STEM education for their career, as a paltry 20 percent of graduates annually will not much help in achieving the larger goals that America sets its sights on to achieve, with the local populace.
Reforming the H-1B program, bringing in stringent measures to avoid exploitation, and improving job mobility, along with significant changes to Green Card allocation and categories, will be key in the upcoming administration.
We sincerely hope that Donald Trump will rigorously pursue it and wish his presidency great success.
The author is a Virginia-based tech entrepreneur.
(The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of New India Abroad.)
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