Two government programs meant to inundate the American labor market with foreign workers over the next year must be stopped immediately due to the coronavirus crisis, Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) President Dan Stein argued in an opinion piece in the Daily Caller.
Stein pointed out that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is scheduled to begin accepting H-1B visa petitions from businesses seeking skilled foreign workers at the start of April.
On the same date industries that want lower skilled labor for seasonal positions start receiving their allowed quota of foreign H-2B workers. An additional 66,000 above the statutory cap was earlier this year authoritzed by Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf.
Stein said this is clearly terrible timing, as there is no longer historically low unemployment rates that encouraged these programs, stressing that massive unemployment due to the crisis is likely not to end soon.
The FAIR head stressed it should be obvious and just common sense to both postpone accepting H-1B petitions and stop the admission of new seasonal guest workers, stating "If ever there was something the country does not need, it is thousands of foreign workers to fill jobs in industries that are being decimated by COVID-19."
He added it is not even practical, or perhaps possible, to test guest workers from so many differnt countries, if they are even able to get to the U.S. at all with most flights grounded.
Stein also stressed that stopping "an infusion of foreign guest workers at a time when more than three million people lost their jobs in one week would seem to be about the least controversial and most obvious steps we could take right now."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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