Press. voanews.com
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order aimed
at making it harder for companies to hire temporary foreign workers. The order,
called "Buy American — Hire American," will take initial steps to
reform the H1-B visa program. H1-Bs allow employers — mostly high-tech firms —
to hire skilled foreign workers to work in the U.S. for three years. There are
85,000 slots available each year, 65,000 for applicants with bachelor's degrees
and 20,000 for those with master's degrees or higher.
"We are going to use a tool you all know very well. It's called the
sledgehammer," Trump said Tuesday during a speech at Snap-on Tools, a
company in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The administration will require companies to
demonstrate that the visas are going only to the most highly skilled workers in
their fields. "They [H1-Bs] should be given to the most skilled and
highest-paid applicants and not be used to replace Americans," Trump said.
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