By Caribbean News Global 
WASHINGTON, USA – President Donald Trump on Monday, August 3, 2020, signing an Executive Order to create a policy where Federal agencies will focus on United States labor in lucrative Federal contracts.
“It would be unfair for Federal employers to replace perfectly qualified Americans with workers from other countries,” a White House statement said.
Protecting American workers
The Executive Order will require all Federal agencies to complete an internal audit and assess whether they are in compliance with the requirement that only United States citizens and nationals are appointed to the competitive service. The Department of Labor will also finalize guidance to prevent H-1B employers from moving H-1B workers to other employers’ job sites to displace Americans workers.
Preventing harmful outsourcing
- This Executive Order follows the federally-owned Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) announcement that it will outsource 20 percent of its technology jobs to companies based in foreign countries.
- TVA’s action could cause more than 200 highly-skilled American tech workers in Tennessee to lose their jobs to low-wage, foreign workers hired on temporary work visas.
- TVA’s decision is also expected to cost the local economy tens of millions of dollars over the next five years.
- Outsourcing hundreds of workers is especially detrimental in the middle of a pandemic, which has already cost millions of Americans their jobs.
- Given the current climate of rampant intellectual property theft, outsourcing IT jobs that involve sensitive information could pose a national security risk.
- President Trump’s actions will help combat employers’ misuse of H-1B visas, which were never intended to replace qualified American workers with low-cost foreign labor.
Preserving jobs for the American people
- As we recover from the pandemic, President Trump has taken action to ensure that American workers never have to remain on the sidelines while being replaced by new foreign labor.
- To protect jobs for American workers, President Trump has placed a temporary pause on new immigration into the country from multiple visa categories.
- President Trump extended the suspension to the end of the year and added several job-related nonimmigrant visas.
- The Administration finalized regulations to eliminate the incentive to file an asylum application for the primary purpose of obtaining an Employment Authorization Document.
- President Trump initiated reforms to the H-1B program to prioritize high-wage workers and close loopholes to ensure American workers are not displaced by low-cost foreign labor.
