WASHINGTON — Some Alaska employers may find themselves without potential foreign employees in the near future, following an executive order issued by President Donald Trump last week.
The "Buy American, Hire American" order ordered federal agencies to reform the H-1B visa program, which is meant to bring high-skilled workers to the United States. According to the White House, 80 percent of approved H-1B visa applications were for "the two lowest wage levels allowed." White House officials said that meant replacing American workers with lower-paid foreign workers.
The H-1B visa program isn't huge in Alaska, at least compared to the J-1 visa program that temporarily staffs the hospitality industry each year. But it is used by a wide variety of employers to bring in everyone from academics to oil workers. Trump's order signaled that he wants to cut out the practice of hiring skilled foreign workers when an American would do, particularly in jobs on the lower-wage end of the spectrum.
[In Alaska, young foreign workers on "cultural exchange" visas wash the dishes and make hotel beds]
According to data from MyVisaJobs.com, which tracks state H-1B visa data, there were 213 such employees in Alaska in 2012, the latest year for which full data is available.
H-1B visas last for three to six years. The program is aimed at skilled workers — with a minimum of a bachelor's degree. The intent "is to help employers who cannot otherwise obtain needed business skills and abilities from the U.S. workforce by authorizing the temporary employment of qualified individuals who are not otherwise authorized to work in the United States," according to the Labor Department.
The executive order tells the secretary of state, the attorney general, the secretary of labor, and the secretary of homeland security to suggest reforms to make sure that H-1B visas "are awarded to the most-skilled or highest-paid petition beneficiaries."
The federal government approved 275,317 employer-filed applications for H-1B visas nationwide in 2015, according to the Labor Department.
Of those 213 H-1B jobs in Alaska in 2012, 78 made under $70,000 per year, according to estimates from MyVisaJobs, and could be a target for Trump's order. Eighty-five companies were employing foreign workers on H1-B visas in Alaska that year.