A prominent Indian-American official in the White House, Mr. Raj Shah has said that President Donald Trump is not anti-immigrant. This statement came in light of the recent legislation passed by the Congressional panel, that imposes more restrictions on the H-1B work visas which is the most sought after visa by Indian IT professionals.
White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary, Mr. Raj Shah expressed that “President Trump has put forward a pretty serious set of proposals on immigration; not just on enforcement but also about reforming the legal system to make it a more merit-based right, with ideas that work for the US economy and for the American worker,”
Further he noted “First of all, I don’t think that the rhetoric is anti- immigrant. I think it’s anti-illegal immigration,”.
Shah’s comments came a few days after a key Congressional committee passed a legislation to propose an increase in the minimum salary of H-1B visa holders from USD 60,0000 to USD 90,000. It also imposes number of restrictions on this work visa that is widely popular among Indian IT professionals.
The bill prohibits H-1B dependent employers from replacing American workers with H-1B employees and there are no longer any exceptions now.
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The legislation has further augmented the H-1B visa’s ‘no-layoff’ policy. It is for the dependent employers and also their client companies, as long an H-1B employee works at the company. This means that they cannot layoff equivalent US workers.
This non-immigrant visa, allows the US companies to employ foreign workers in specialist occupations that require a theoretical or technical expertise in some field. Major technology companies depend on this visa to hire thousands of employees each year.
Shah emphasized that PresidentTrump is only trying to make immigration more”merit-based” and “reform” the legal system in this regard.
“To ask for immigration to support the US economy, for asking for people who are coming here to be vetted for public safety or security threats, I don’t think it’s a very big leap. I think it’s very reasonable, The public supports that,” he Said.
“There’s a tone in the media on this issue which is not fair, the mainstream media is just not paying attention to and is not focused and not giving kind of credit where it’s due,”He told, emphasizing that in today’s world, the president has many ways to get his message out.
Shah concluded, “He uses it very effectively with Twitter and other social media. He uses it very effectively with public speaking and with talking when he does a question and answer session, we always say look the president is his own best messenger,”.
