Presidential Executive Actions Halting High Skilled Immigration Hurt the US Economy

Though the Trump administration has justified restrictions on H-1B visas for high-skilled foreign workers as a job saving measure in response to the COVID-19-induced recession, economic research demonstrates that these policies will not increase employment of Americans and will in fact reduce long term growth. “Presidential Executive Actions Halting High Skilled Immigration Hurt the US Economy,” published by the University of California, Davis Global Migration Center, examines Trump’s June 22, 2020 proclamation suspending the processing of new H-1B visas through the lens of recent studies in labor economics. The authors find that the flow of high-skilled labor facilitated by the H-1B visa program is a critical component of U.S. economic growth, allowing American firms to take advantage of an especially talented and entrepreneurial demographic. Further, claims of job displacement and wage decline due to high-skilled labor inflows are unsupported by evidence, as H-1B recipients largely complement, rather than compete with, U.S.-born workers in the labor market. The authors criticize the proclamation, arguing the Trump administration’s series of executive orders restricting opportunities for legal immigration “will likely have no positive short-run effects but will risk dire long run implications.” (Jason Boyle for The Immigrant Learning Center’s Public Education Institute)

Download now or view online.