Dallas, TX (Law Firm Newswire) October 10, 2018 – A group of prominent U.S. business leaders have joined forces to express their concerns regarding the Trump administration’s recent changes to immigration policy and their potentially negative impact on economic growth. The group sent a joint letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on August 23, 2018 denouncing the current treatment of H-1B petitions for highly skilled foreign workers.
Sixty CEOs signed the letter addressed to Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen highlighting issues that are threatening to harm their company operations and create uncertainty for thousands of highly skilled foreign employees. The letter outlined four main areas of concern including uncertainty about required information, inconsistent immigration decisions, revoked status for highly skilled foreign nationals’ spouses and mandated initiation of removal proceedings for foreign nationals who thought that they followed all the rules.
Among the executives named in the letter were Tim Cook of Apple, Marc Benioff of Salesforce, Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo, Doug Parker of American Airlines and Ginni Rometty of IBM. They are members of the Business Roundtable, which is chaired by Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase. That organization was responsible for coordinating the letter.
The executives wrote that the DHS was allowing USCIS officers to inconsistently apply policy when examining visa petitions. The CEOs also pointed out that the department has in some cases initiated removal proceedings even among current employees who have followed immigration laws and planned to leave the United States immediately.
The letter noted that many of the employees affected by the immigration policy changes have previously received government authorization to work in the country on multiple occasions. Citing extreme labor shortages, the executives warned that the challenges posed by the inconsistencies would ultimately compel highly skilled foreign workers to take their talents elsewhere.