President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order tightening the H-1B visa program used to bring high-skilled foreign workers to the United States.
The president signed the order progressing his continued campaign on “America First.” The president also looks to change the procurement process in the government in an effort to boost sales of American-made products in federal contracts.
Trump continues his trend of executive orders that seek to fulfill what he promised his supporters throughout the election year. His focus has mainly been on amending immigration policies and encouraging Americans to buy American products in an effort to create more jobs.
There were no details on today’s executive order implementation.
The president is relying heavily on executive orders, having achieved no major legislative realization as he nears the 100-day benchmark of his presidency.
H-1B visas are awarded to foreign citizens in occupations that require high skills such as engineering, science or computer programming. 65,000 visas are issued annually through a computerized lottery and 20,000 more are randomly distributed to graduate students and workers.
“Right now H-1B visas are awarded in a totally random lottery and that’s wrong. Instead, they should be given to the most skilled and highest paid applicants and they should never, ever be used to replace Americans,” Trump said after signing the order.
