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United States President Donald Trump has ordered a review of the US visa program for bringing high-skilled foreign workers into the country, mirroring the sentiment of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's move to abolish the 457 visa.
Key points:
- US President Donald Trump orders review of foreign visa program
- "We're going to defend our workers, protect our jobs and finally put America first," Mr Trump says
- The move will affect scores of Indian workers in the United States
Seeking to carry out a campaign pledge to put "America First," Mr Trump signed an executive order on the H-1B visa program.
The American H1-B visa is akin to the 457 Australian visa which Mr Turnbull announced would be replaced with two new skilled worker visas.
Mr Trump's announcement was vague on many fronts, but in a press briefing and a fact sheet the White House pointed toward basic goals.
One objective, said Trump aides, is to modify or replace the current lottery for H-1B visas with a merit-based system that would restrict the visas to highly skilled workers.
Mr Trump announced the order and made remarks at a visit to the headquarters of Snap-On Inc, a tool maker in Wisconsin.
In addition to addressing the visas issue, he also ordered a review of government procurement rules favouring American companies to see if they are actually benefiting, especially the US steel industry.
"With this action, we are sending a powerful signal to the world: We're going to defend our workers, protect our jobs and finally put America first," Mr Trump said.
Mr Trump's speech echoed the sentiment of Mr Turnbull's announcement yesterday.
"The migration program should only operate in our national interest … this is about jobs for Australians," Mr Turnbull said.
Trump's penchant for signing executive orders
As he nears the 100-day benchmark of his presidency, Mr Trump still has no major legislative achievements.
With his attempts to overhaul healthcare and tax law stalled in Congress, Mr Trump has leaned heavily on executive orders to change policy.
It was unclear whether the latest such order would yield immediate results.
The H-1B visas section included no definite timeline, while the government procurement section did.
"We hope the goal of President Trump's executive order on the H-1B program is "mend it, don't end it," said Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a major technology industry group.
Going to a more merit-based H-1B system could attract more people with advanced science and technology skills, Mr Atkinson said in a statement.
But he said some ideas could make the system ineffective, such as requiring advertisement of job openings for long periods to prove the unavailability of US workers.
'Widespread abuse of the system': Trump
Critics of the program say most H-1B visas are awarded for lower-paid jobs at outsourcing firms, many based in India.
They say that takes work away from Americans and lowers wages.
Indian nationals are the largest group of H-1B recipients annually.
Such a change could affect major US companies, such as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Cognizant Tech Solutions Corp and Infosys Ltd, that connect Silicon Valley with thousands of foreign engineers and programmers.
None responded to Reuters requests for comment.
"Right now, widespread abuse in our immigration system is allowing American workers of all backgrounds to be replaced by workers brought in from other countries," Mr Trump said.
The visas are intended to go to foreign nationals in occupations that generally require specialised knowledge — such as science, engineering or computer programming.
The Government uses a lottery to award 65,000 visas yearly and randomly distributes another 20,000 to graduate student workers.
Critics say the lottery benefits outsourcing firms that flood the system with mass applications for visas for lower-paid information technology workers.
ABC/wires
Topics: donald-trump, work, immigration, government-and-politics, united-states
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