Changes from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on work visas cause local concern

LAS CRUCES - Presidential proclamations and regulatory changes from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on employment-based visas have reportedly caused fear and confusion for many people in the process of immigrating to the U.S. and applying for work authorization, as well as for students applying for admission to New Mexico State University. 

“There’s a lot of confusion as to what it means because in the last week a lot of different decrees have come out,” Imelda Maynard, staff attorney with Catholic Charities of Southern New Mexico, said. “Basically, it’s created a lot of fear and hysteria. More so than already existed.”

Maynard said many of the changes do not apply to their permanent legal resident clients, but are “freaking people out.”

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Who will be impacted by the changes?

The Proclamation Suspending Entry of Aliens Who Present a Risk to the U.S. Labor Market Following the Coronavirus Outbreak from President Donald Trump, released June 22 and in effect as of June 24, extends an earlier proclamation from April 22. This suspends or limits the ability of people to enter the country with an H-1B, H-2B, J or L visa.

According to the U.S. Department of State, H and L visas are temporary employment visas for people in a specialty occupation, a temporary non-agricultural worker or an intracompany transferee. J visas are for people who participate in an exchange visitor program. The proclamation has been explained as an effort to protect American workers due to the large rise in unemployment filings since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country.

“Where it’s going to probably be felt the most is in Silicon Valley, because a lot of tech workers are here on H-1B visas. So these are visas for high skilled immigrant workers, basically,” Maynard said. “And so it affects those that are abroad.”

College enrollment could take a hit

Justin Bannister, associate vice president of Marketing and Communications at New Mexico State University, said that while the visa suspensions will have little to no impact on the Arrowhead Center and technology-based jobs, international students will be affected.

Luis Cifuentes, vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School at NMSU, said a large portion of the graduate student population at NMSU is international students. With suspensions of visas, students will not be able to come into the country for their education. He said the deficit will have to be made up with in-state students and others from around the country.

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"Total applications are about 2,124 (as of June 17)," Cifuentes said. "Last year at the same time there was 1,693." He explained that more than a third of the applications are from international students, so the university's enrollment will take a large hit.

Cifuentes said after graduating, many students stay in the country and go to work for companies such as Google and Apple. With fewer people available to take on positions with these companies, the "talent pool" will be diminished and employers will need to look elsewhere.

While New Mexico is home to a number of national labs, White Sands Missile Range and NASA, Cifuentes said many of the positions available with these organizations require citizenship or a security clearance. However, internships and graduate assistant positions will be impacted because only in-country students will be available to fill them.

Cifuentes said that, in the meantime, students are being offered the options of starting their studies online or deferring to the spring 2021 semester so they might be able to come into the country. He said the Graduate School is watching the COVD-19 situation closely — as well as the 2020 presidential election — to prepare for the coming semesters.

"We have highly-talented students, both within the state and across the country. And we need to get those students at NMSU and we need to get them going on graduate programs," Cifuentes said.

Asylum seekers employment chances will dwindle

Changes in regulation pertaining to asylum seekers’ ability to gain employee authorization documents were also announced by USCIS on June 22, to take effect Aug. 25. The changes keep people who entered the country illegally “from obtaining employment authorization based on a pending asylum application.”

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Maynard said this stops asylum seekers with pending applications from applying for employment authorization. She said this is a problem because it can take years for applications to be processed and brought before a court, so the person is left without employment options during that time.

“USCIS’s response has been pretty callous because people have pointed it out — and I think, in some of their comments, they’ve basically said, 'well, people should probably get acquainted with the homelessness resources in their community,'” Maynard said.

Maynard said the proclamations will likely be litigated. But, since each case is unique, there is not a clear legal answer.

“Contrary to popular belief, these employment visas — people aren’t replacing Americans. In order to be able to get an employment-based visa, U.S. employers have to show that they’ve made good-faith offers to try and find Americans who can fill these positions before they go looking for workers abroad,” Maynard said. “Quite a bit of work goes into making sure that they’ve certified to the Department of Labor that they looked for Americans but couldn’t find them.”

Maynard explained that with these stricter regulations, businesses will have lost the time, money and effort it took to locate the worker abroad. She said confusion among the charity's family-based immigration clients has spread because they are waiting for family members to be interviewed at consulates abroad. She also said their legal permanent resident clients who are outside the of the U.S. are worried they won't be able to get back into the country.

"They think that proclamation applies to them and it doesn't," Maynard said.

Leah Romero is a fellow with the New Mexico Local News Fund and can be reached at lromero@lcsun-news.com or @rromero_leah on Twitter.