CEOs of  leading US multinational companies have raised ‘serious concern’ aboutchanges in the immigration policy by the Trump administration. They see that present policy changes could upset operations of American firms and may hinder their competitiveness.

In a letter to the US government, leaders of US business fraternity, including the CEOs of Apple, PepsiCo, ADP, American Airlines, AT&T, Cognizant, Mastercard, Cisco Systems, together foresee the present US immigration policy as “inconsistent” that “creates anxiety” among the employees.

The Business Round table forum represented by leaders of different US corporations told Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen that “inconsistent government action and uncertainty undermines economic growth and American competitiveness.”

In further explanation, in the jointly signed letter, they wrote that because of a shortage of green cards, many workers get stuck in the complicated process for more than a decade. They keep on renewing their work visas to continue working in the States.

They stressed thatto give reasonable opportunity to these employees and to avoid unnecessary costs and complications for American businesses, the US administration should not bring any change in the rules in the middle of the immigration process.

Their concern was very much clear and well-directed to the government as they say that several policy memoranda issued over the past year will “result in arbitrary and inconsistent adjudications.”

The letter notes that Business Roundtable continues to work with Congress to reduce the green card backlog. However, inconsistent immigration policies and any uncertainty would discourage talented and skilled individuals from pursuing a job opportunity in the United States.

The executives further expressed their concerns that now when there are huge number of job vacancies because of labor shortages, this is not the right time to restrict access to talent. Hence, the federal government must avoid making changes to policies that would disrupt the lives of a huge number of law-abiding and skilled employees. This would hurt US competitiveness. 

Trump Admin on H-1B Visa Program

It is to note that the Trump administration has signed an executive order in April 19, 2017, to review the H-1B Visa Program. His intention is to allow only highly-paid skilled workers getting the work visa and not those foreign workers, who are paid less than their US counterparts.

The US Immigration Service has already sent many applications for further verification out of which many have also been rejected. The Silicon Valley CEOs are worried that changes to the immigration policy and restricting work visa to foreign employees would hurt the growth of America’s most competitive companies.

--Deepak Mohanty