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Telugu diaspora organisations have raised alarm over President Donald Trump's new H-1B visa policy that mandates US companies pay $100,000 per foreign worker to the government. The policy change is particularly significant for the Telugu diaspora, which forms one of the largest communities among Indians who hold approximately 70% of all H-1B visas.
President Trump’s announcement was made with the purported aim to ensure that US companies hire more American talent and according to the US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, “sending less valuable talent back to their home countries.” The new rule would apply from September 21 onwards for a period of 12 months with the possibility of extension.
Calling the H-1B visa program a “national security threat” Trump alleged “systemic abuse” of the visa system particularly by IT outsourcing firms. “Further, the abuse of the H-1B visa program has made it even more challenging for college graduates trying to find IT jobs, allowing employers to hire foreign workers at a significant discount to American workers,” his proclamation further reads.
Speaking to Telugu channels, one of the directors of the Telugu Association of North America (TANA), Hema Kanuru said that this move has put new job aspirants in a fix. “Introducing a policy today and stating that it will be applicable from Monday onwards is highly unfair and gives job seekers and companies very little time to prepare. This also ends up affecting small IT businesses in the States adversely,” Hema said.
Adding to Hema Kanuru’s argument, Rahul Reddy, an Indian American based in the USA said the issue will unfold in more adverse ways than one. “We’ll know more by the end of Sunday. But there are questions to be answered. How does the US government expect companies to pay for their foreign talent pool travelling in the coming couple of days? Is the payment expected to be made before they land or will they ask them to pay up well in advance and if not met with, deny entry?”
Telugu political analyst Nageshwar Rao said that the move was unsurprising on President Trump’s part as his MAGA (Make America Great Again) base wants H1-B visas to be scrapped to privilege USA citizens over foreigners.
Janeta Reddy, a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), pointed out that the Department of Labour has to update salaries/wages with the new rule in mind. “Currently the Labour Department’s website is under maintenance. So we have to wait for more details to interpret the rules of what’s in the offing,” she said.