Trump Regime to Start Prohibiting Work Permits for Immigrant Spouses

[Content Note: Nativism; misogyny.]

Nearly two years ago, in April of 2017, I noted that the Trump Regime was threatening, as part of its expansive war on immigrants, to stop issuing work permits to the spouses of immigrants on H-1B visas. Now, they're following through on that threat.

Previously, if someone was a skilled worker who was living and working in the U.S. on an H-1B visa, their spouse could also apply to work under a work authorization known as an H-4. In simple terms, it was a way of very reasonably accommodating the needs of spouses of people in the U.S. on work visas, so that spouses didn't have to be entirely financially dependent and have a big gap in their resumes while they lived in the U.S.

But the nativists in the Trump Regime didn't like this arrangement, in no small part because it encouraged immigrant families to come to the U.S. on H-1B visas, so they made the incredibly shitty decision to move ahead with their plan to stop the H-4 program.

Tal Kopan at the San Francisco Chronicle reports:

After nearly two years of delays, the Trump administration is moving ahead with its plan to stop granting work permits to the spouses of many high-skilled visa holders, an effort that could jeopardize tens of thousands of immigrant families in California alone.

Rolling back the permits could have sweeping consequences for the Bay Area, where tech companies heavily rely on high-skilled immigrants. Many of those workers come to the U.S. with spouses and children, and the loss of the spousal work permits could imperil families' ability to stay in the country or deter workers from accepting jobs here to begin with.

...The proposed regulation was officially sent to the White House for review on Wednesday, a government database shows. That procedural step means that the Department of Homeland Security has completed its work on the policy. The White House will now put the regulation through review with other agencies, a process that can take anywhere from days to months, depending on the regulation's complexity.

...More than 93 percent of those affected by the potential removal of the work permit are women, which especially concerns advocates.

"It undermines the agency and dignity of these spouses and it harms their career prospects; it leaves them less empowered to leave abusive situations," said Amanda Baran, an attorney and advocate with the San Francisco-based Immigrant Legal Resource Center and a veteran of the Department of Homeland Security.

"I feel like it's just another part of Trump's larger agenda, which is to expel immigrants, prevent them from coming in, and make life uncomfortable for them here and compel them to leave," she said.

Correct. Because malice is the agenda.

At a certain point, this rule change will be subject to public comment, at which time, we'll need to make our voices head in resistance to this gross act of nativism and misogyny.