![]() ![]() consulates to close due to the pandemic, and no one questioned that decision. She elaborated that “it was totally understandable at the time” for U.S. “You really could not get a visa to come here unless you had some emergency since March,” Eileen Lohmann, senior associate at Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP, explained to the HPR. They never provided specific evidence regarding how the banned visa classifications affected employment opportunities for U.S. Although they cited high unemployment rates caused by the pandemic, the technical fields in which the majority of H-1B visa holders work saw unemployment rates dropping during the pandemic due to the shift to remote work. This ban was issued for 30 days and then renewed in June, alongside a new proclamation suspending additional immigrants behind the smokescreen of the pandemic. ![]() However, since consulates were closed, no one was obtaining visas from a practical or logistical standpoint - pushing immigration bans under the guise of creating new jobs is merely a political strategy. The ban refused to admit new green card applicants, citing that they could take job opportunities from Americans. This was applied to both family-based visas and employment-based immigrant visas. In April, the administration issued the first immigrant visa travel ban on the basis of a labor market disruption. consulates abroad closed to prioritize the safety of their officers, leaving many stranded out of the country. In January 2020, the Trump administration imposed the first ban restricting immigration from countries with high rates of COVID-19 infection two weeks prior to travel to America. This deluge of harmful pandemic policies has exacerbated pre-existing structural issues within employment-based visas, creating incredible legal, financial and emotional stress for immigrants and their children. Since the pandemic, the Trump administration, Department of Homeland Security, and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services have been repeatedly using the most harmful versions of xenophobic, “immigrants steal jobs” rhetoric to push their agenda as the election year comes to a close. On April 18, 2017, President Trump signed the Buy American and Hire American executive order with the stated goal of safeguarding American jobs. ![]()
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