President Joe Biden has partially lifted a ban in the Trump era that severely curtailed legal immigration amid the pandemic, saying it has separated families and harmed U.S. industries that rely on international talent.
Family members of U.S. citizens and green card holders can now immigrate to the U.S., a phenomenon former President Donald Trump previously described as “chain migration.” So did individuals selected to obtain visas through the diversity visa lottery, which allows the U.S. to accept 55,000 immigrants from countries with historically low immigration levels annually, and has been the subject of Trump’s infamous ‘shit-hole countries’.
The Institute for Migration Policy estimates that restrictions on immigrants can be avoided 26 000 people from obtaining monthly green cards since April last year, when Trump enforced the ban.
However, many foreign workers applying for temporary visas are still not allowed to enter the U.S. until at least March 31, when the existing ban would expire unless Biden decides to renew it.
These include skilled workers applying the coveted H-1B visa, which the technology industry relies on, and their spouses applying for H-4 visas as dependents. Foreigners entering the U.S. offices of their multinational companies through L visas, including business leaders, and some scholars and people participating in J-1 visas in cultural and job exchanges are also still banned.
It is not clear when Biden will lift restrictions on visa applicants, which Trump saw as a threat to domestic workers who were fired amid the pandemic. Although Trump administration officials at the time argued that the ban would save 525,000 U.S. jobs, most layoffs eventually occurred in industries that do not employ a significant number of foreign workers who come on visas, suggesting the ban low unemployment and could harm companies employing Americans as well as non-citizens.
The ban has always excluded immigrants who are already in the U.S., existing visa holders, temporary workers in food production industries, and health workers and researchers fighting Covid-19.
In a proclamation Wednesday night, Biden said the ban “does not advance the interests of the United States.”
“On the contrary, it harms the United States, among other things, by preventing certain family members of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents from joining their families here,” he wrote. “It also harms industries in the United States that utilize talent from around the world.”
The repeal of the ban is only the first step: the Biden administration will now have to address the extensive backlog of visa applications that came into force during the ban. This includes some 473 000 visa applicants sponsored by family members in the US.
Lawyers for those affected say they will do so continue to challenge the remaining provisions of the ban affecting foreign workers in court. Last year, a federal judge released 181 families from the ban who proved they were harmed by it, including children who would not be eligible for green cards after turning 21, while the ban still applies.
In addition to the pressure to revoke the visa ban, Biden is also urged, and also repeals a Trump-era policy that still allows the US to reject the vast majority of asylum seekers arriving on the pandemic-related ground at the southern border . He could do this by issuing a similar, one-sided proclamation.