Trump Signs Order That Could Lead to Curbs on Foreign Workers -
By GLENN THRUSHAPRIL 18, 2017
President Trump is speaking after visiting a tool manufacturing company in Kenosha, Wis.
KENOSHA, Wis. — President Trump — hammering his “America First” campaign theme after recent policy flip-flops
that have infuriated his populist base — signed an executive order on Tuesday authorizing studies and tweaks in government rules that could lead to restrictions on foreign technical workers.
“I don’t think the president and his staff fully appreciates that fact.”
In a briefing with reporters Monday, White House officials said the “Buy American
and Hire American” order would also overhaul federal procurement practices to increase the selection of products from American companies, especially in the domestic steel industry, which has faced stiff competition from China.
Mr. Trump said the order, signed at the sprawling Snap-on tool factory in Kenosha, Wis., was a way to “restore the American dream”
and a means to end the “theft of American prosperity,” which he said had been brought on by low-wage immigrant labor.
H-1B visas “should include only the most skilled and highest-paid applicants
and should never, ever be used to replace American workers,” he told a gathering of about 500 workers and local luminaries, including the White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, a Kenosha native.
They include a requirement that federal agencies produce reports on changes to improve the H-1B visa program, under which companies recruit
and hire 85,000 foreign workers annually, many of them in high-tech, industrial, medical and science fields.
