Leading American lawmakers and human rights groups have criticised US President Donald Trump's decision to impose a temporary suspension of H-1B and other non-immigrant visas.
"I'm deeply disappointed by President Trump's misguided order to suspend these key work visa programmes. I urge him to reverse this decision to help ensure our health care system and broader economy are ready to combat the next phase of (coronavirus) pandemic and to create the jobs we need for our economic recovery," Indian American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
"The H-1B programme in particular plays a crucial role in addressing dangerous shortage of health care professionals while also providing other key sectors of our economy with talent from around the world to not only fill jobs, but create new ones, he said.
"Suspending this programme will only weaken our economy and our health care workforce at a time when the need to strengthen both is as clear as ever," Krishnamoorthi added.
In a major setback for Indian professionals, US President Donald Trump has instructed his administration to "reform" the H-1B visa system and shift towards a merit-based immigration, White House officials said.
Meanwhile, Senator Democratic Whip Dick Durbin and Congressmen Bill Pascrell and Ro Khanna felt that this was not the right approach.
"We need to mend the H-1B programme, not end it. Instead of suspending H-1B visas, the Trump Administration should ask Congress to pass the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2020, which reforms the H-1B program with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer," the three leading lawmakers said.
Congresswoman Donna E Shalala said that Trump is now attacking American businesses - and endangering the economic recovery. "America will be poorer and less competitive because of it," she was quoted as saying by PTI.
Human rights bodies have also blasted the Trump administration's decision to suspend certain non-immigrant work visas until at least the end of the year.
The ban on issuing H-1B, H-2B, J-1 and L-1 visas will harm employers, families, universities, hospitals, communities, and delay America's economic recovery, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) said.
"We are all still in the middle of an unprecedented global health and economic crisis that requires us to use all of the tools and resources available to keep Americans healthy and strengthen our economy," AILA President Jennifer Minear was quoted as saying.
"Being able to draw on the best and brightest from around the world has always been an incredible advantage for America. This presidential proclamation ignores this reality and will make emerging from this crisis more difficult and expensive," Minear said.
"The Trump administration's latest travel ban targeting people who come to the United States as temporary workers, students, and visitors who participate in international exchange programmes is a thinly-veiled attempt to radically shift immigration policy by proclamation. This is not about public health or the economy," said Beth Werlin, executive director of the American Immigration Council.
She added that several people, the administration is banning are families of the frontline workers who are serving amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"The ban is a threat to our American tradition of immigration. We must stand united in opposition to the president's latest action to advance his well-documented anti-immigration agenda," Werlin was quoted as saying.
"This is yet another attempt to reduce immigration, even temporary immigration, under the guise of a public health crisis," said Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.
(With inputs from PTI)
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