TIL Desk/World/Washington/A prominent Indian-American, who holds a key position in the White House, has refuted the notion that US President Donald Trump is anti-immigrant. “First of all, I don’t think that the rhetoric is anti-immigrant. I think it’s anti-illegal immigration,” White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah said.
Shah’s comments come days after a key Congressional committee passed a legislation that proposes to increase the minimum salary of H-1B visa holders from $60,0000 to $90,000 and imposes a number of restrictions on the work visa that is popular among Indian IT professionals.
The bill prohibits H-1B dependent employers from replacing American workers with H-1B employees, there are no longer any exceptions. It also lengthens the no-layoff policy for H-1B dependent employers and their client companies for as long an H-1B employee works at the company, which means they cannot layoff equivalent US workers. Shah said Trump was only trying to make immigration “more merit-based” and “reform” the legal system regarding it.
