White House says President Donald Trump’s immediate focus is on tackling illegal immigration

There will be no changes in the H-1B visa programme for skilled temporary foreign workers before this year’s selection process kicks off on April 1, the White House indicated on Wednesday. The U.S. admits 85,000 people on H-1B visas every year, through a lottery process that begins with the filing of applications on April 1.

Press secretary Sean Spicer said President Donald Trump was focused on dealing with illegal immigration at the moment and the overall revamp of the immigration process will come subsequently.

The legal and the illegal

“I think there is the legal part of immigration and then the illegal part of immigration. The President’s actions that he’s taken in terms of his executive order and other revamping of immigration policy have focused on our border security, keeping our country safe, our people safe. And then, obviously, whether it’s H-1B visas or the other one — spousal visas — other areas of student visas, I think there is a natural desire to have a full look at — a comprehensive look at that,” Mr. Spicer said.

David Perdue and Tom Cotton, Senators pushing for legislation that will restrict family-linked and employment-related legal immigration to the U.S. met Mr. Trump on Tuesday. Mr. Spicer said Mr. Trump was very supportive of their efforts with respect to how we view legal immigration.

“He mentioned it in his joint address that we’re one of only a handful of countries that doesn’t use a merit-based system of immigration, and that is something that we need to look at in its totality,” Mr. Spicer said.

While Mr. Trump’s preference for merit-based immigration as opposed to family-linked immigration could be seen as beneficial for Indian tech workers, any direct correlation could be misleading. Mr. Trump has spoken about merit-based immigration throughout his campaign, even while opposing immigrant workers allegedly undercutting or replacing American workers.

Neither Mr. Trump nor his advisers believe the H-1B programme is merit-based, going by their public statements so far.

Mr. Spicer had earlier said the administration was considering executive and legislative actions to overhaul the H-1B programme. While no measure is expected before the beginning of this year’s processing season, there could be changes later in the year. Top on the administration’s priority is work permit for spouses of H-1B visa holders, which was introduced through an executive action by the Obama administration.