The country’s big business groups and corporations have filed a lawsuit to block the President’s new Covid-19 immigration restrictions, requestin that the court keep the pipeline of dependent and cheap foreign labor flowing.
The National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a multitude of other organizations banded together to file the lawsuit in federal court in California.
They said that while the law permits the president to exclude certain migrants, that doesn’t cover the large-scale job-saving blockade he announced in a Executive Order last month covering some 500,000 temporary worker visas that could have been issued in 2020.
“In this way, the Proclamation takes a sledgehammer to the statutes Congress enacted with respect to high-skilled and temporary worker immigration,” the corporations said. “While the President’s powers under Section 212(f) are broad, they do not authorize the president to nullify duly enacted statutory provisions.”
In April the President halted the issuance of tens of thousands of green cards, then in June, his administration expanded that policy to include temporary visa workers under the H-1B, H-2B, H-4 and L visas categories through the end of the year. The business groups said that amounts to approximately half a million immigrants.
As reported by the Washington Times, “Mr. Trump says he wants businesses to turn to Americans first when searching for workers as the economy recovers. He said blocking new foreign workers will force the issue.
The business groups, though, counter that foreign workers actually help some parts of the economy. They argued that tech workers, who often use H-1B visas, are critical to the recovery, yet the unemployment rate among them is very low despite the pandemic.”
For the full story, please visit the Washington Times.
