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Planned President's order will discourage hiring of low-wage foreign workers

Trump pledged to end the program, which he said was allowing companies to fire Americans and replace them with lower-cost foreign employees.

US President Donald Trump, alongside son Barron Trump (L) and US First Lady Melania Trump (2L), speaks during the Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC on April 17, 2017

Trump will also direct all federal agencies to systematically examine the effectiveness of government rules and trade agreements that require a preference for purchasing from U.S. companies.

The president will announce the order during a visit to the headquarters of Snap-onTools in Kenosha, Wisconsin, senior administration officials told reporters during a briefing Monday afternoon. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the president’s announcement.

As a candidate, Trump often assailed the government’s H-1B visa program, under which the government admits 85,000 immigrants each year, mostly to work in high-tech jobs. Trump pledged to end the program, which he said was allowing companies to fire Americans and replace them with lower-cost foreign employees.

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The expected executive order falls far short of ending that program, but the administration officials argued on Monday that the changes Trump sought would radically change it.

The officials said 80 percent of the immigrants who enter the U.S. under the current visa program are paid less than the median wage for workers in their fields.

The president’s order seeks changes to the program that would require applicants and their potential employers to demonstrate that the visas are going only to “the most highly skilled workers” in their fields.

As a result, the officials said, the H-1B visa would no longer be a cheap way for companies to replace U.S. workers. But technology executives, who have argued that the program is vital to their ability to recruit talent, are likely to be frustrated by the change.

Robert D. Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a research group sponsored by several tech companies, predicted in January that a crackdown on H-1B visas would be counterproductive.

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“The effect would end up being exactly the opposite of what Trump wants,” he said. “Companies would go offshore, like Microsoft did with Vancouver, Canada,” to seek talent.

The changes Trump is seeking will take some time to carry out, the administration officials said. The order will call for a 220-day review of waivers and exceptions made to decades-old “Buy American” rules.

Those waivers are at the heart of about 60 trade deals with foreign countries, the officials said. If the review finds that the waivers are detrimental to U.S. workers, the trade deals could be renegotiated, they added.

In addition, all federal agencies will be directed to strictly enforce “Buy American” rules, giving the highest priority to U.S. companies when making purchasing decisions.

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