President Trump will follow through with his America First campaign pledge on Tuesday by signing an order changing a visa program that supplies highly skilled overseas workers to the tech industry.
The “Buy American, Hire American” executive order would direct Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to coordinate a review across the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Labor and State to crack down on weak monitoring and enforcement efforts aimed at “rooting out every single Buy American loophole,” an administration officials told reporters on Monday.
The order, which Trump will sign during a visit to tool manufacturer Snap-on-Inc, in Wisconsin, would propose new rules to prevent immigration fraud and abuse and require those departments to offer changes so that H-1B visas are awarded to the “most-skilled or highest-paid applicants.”
The White House said the visa program hurts American middle-class workers by allowing companies, including high-tech firms, to hire cheap labor to drive down wages.