In an interview with The New York Times, Joseph Edlow, the new director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, stated that the Trump administration plans to restructure the H-1B visa program for skilled foreign workers, which is at the center of a dispute between immigration hardliners and leaders of the tech sector.
Edlow, also said the test to become a U.S. citizen was too easy and should be changed.
“The test, as it’s laid out right now, it’s not very difficult. It’s very easy to kind of memorize the answers. I don’t think we’re really complying with the spirit of the law,” said Edlow to The New York Times.
Edlow shed light on how the agency at the heart of the country’s immigration system would operate during President Trump’s second term, when the president has promised a broad crackdown on immigration and a huge deportation effort.
H-1B visa program
The H-1B visa program for foreign workers has been the topic of heated dispute within the Republican Party.
The Trump administration intends to dramatically modify the present H-1B visa selection process. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) have submitted a proposal to the White House for a new H-1B visa selection system.
It appears that the selection of H-1B candidates would be based on their skills, experience level, and salary.
Edlow stated that it should favor corporations that intend to pay greater wages to overseas labor.
The suggested reforms to the system may assist to soothe criticism from the right side of the Republican party, who claim the program brings in immigrants ready to take lesser wages than American workers.
This week, Vice President JD Vance criticized corporations who lay off their own staff and then hire overseas workers.
However, some of Mr. Trump’s most prominent supporters in the IT industry have stated that they rely on the program due to a lack of competent American workers.
“I really do think that the way H-1B needs to be used, and this is one of my favorite phrases, is to, along with a lot of other parts of immigration, supplement, not supplant, U.S. economy and U.S. businesses and U.S. workers,” Mr. Edlow claimed.
Historically, 85,000 visas are provided to hire so-called high-skilled foreign workers at American companies.
Edlow’s proposed revisions would require approval from the federal government’s rule-making process.
Doug Rand, a former Biden administration official, stated that modifying the H1-B process to benefit higher-wage individuals was unwise.
“Like it or not, the H-1B program is the main way that U.S. companies can hire the best and brightest international graduates of U.S. universities, and Congress never allowed D.H.S. to put its thumb on the scale based on salary,” the lawmaker added.
US Citizenship Test
Edlow also stated that the government wants to modify the citizenship test required of potential US citizens.
Immigrants currently study 100 civics questions and must properly answer six out of ten to pass that segment of the test. During the first Trump administration, the agency doubled the number of questions and required candidates to properly answer 12 out of 20 questions. Edlow says the government intends to reintroduce a version of that exam soon.