• United States: Donald Trump freezes the issuance of new visas for some professions until 2021

The Donald Trump government has dealt a further blow to American universities and, at the same time, has increased pressure for the country to reopen to economic activity as soon as possible despite the increase in cases of coronavirus. To do this, the US immigration authorities have decided to deny visas to foreign students who are enrolled in online courses starting in September.

The unexpected measure comes at a time when many of the academic institutions in the United States have canceled their face-to-face classes and have moved them to the Internet to avoid the risks of contagion with coronavirus.

Among the affected universities is, for example, Harvard, which had moved all its programs to the network in the fall semester, which normally starts in early September, to avoid the risk of Covid-19 infection. Others, such as Cornell, have opted for a mixed model of classroom and online classes. In any case, even in these academic centers, foreign students will be forced to attend at least one face-to-face course.

The move is part of the instrumentalization of the coronavirus to paralyze legal immigration into the United States . Just two weeks ago, the Trump administration announced, also by surprise, that, due to the pandemic, it will not issue more work visas in the remainder of 2020. That decision is a blow against the large technology companies, which depend to a large extent its ability to attract foreign talent to compete.

The most effective summary of this new provision comes from a statement by Chuck Robbins, CEO of the Internet giant Cisco, to the newspaper 'Financial Times': "This regulation could have been called the Job Creation Act in Canada, since it is very easy to go to Toronto and hire and employ people there. " Canada has an immigration system that prioritizes applicants with a high educational level. Paradoxically, the Donald Trump government has cited that country on numerous occasions as its model in immigration policy.

Now, the new provision is a blow to the universities. As in the case of work visas, the rules established with the excuse of the coronavirus do not affect immigrants from poor countries, nor the undocumented. On the contrary: studying in the United States is very expensive, and also one of the main avenues that country has had to attract international talent, since a part of foreign students end up staying in the country.

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