Silicon Valley technology firms employing foreign workers are scrambling to allay visa holders’ fears that if they travel outside the country they might not get back in.
“Our clients are pinging us and saying, ‘We’re really worried, we want to support our folks,’ ” said San Francisco lawyer Kelli Duehning of immigration law giant Berry, Appleman & Leiden. “The fear is there.”
Companies in the Bay Area and across the country are enlisting Duehning and others in her legal field to hold online town halls attended by up to hundreds of foreign employees.
“We’re having a lot of conversations now around whether companies want to institute certain policies around travel,” said San Francisco immigration lawyer Maxine Bayley at the Duane Morris firm. “I haven’t had a client yet saying, ‘We’re not going to allow travel.’ Business is global now, and companies need to send people around the world. But because of the climate and the other things that are going on, people are definitely concerned.”
Some workers with visas are playing it safe and avoiding personal travel, Bayley said. “I’ve definitely had conversations that have ended with, ‘Well, I’m not going to take that trip right now,’ ” Bayley said.
Although President Donald Trump in his first administration took aim at the controversial H-1B work visa held by tens of thousands of Bay Area tech workers, so far his administration has not sought to prevent work visa holders from returning to the U.S., immigration lawyers said.
“The main thing that we’re saying to folks is there’s a lot of people who travel every day, and most people have no problem,” Duehning said. ‘If you’re carrying the proper documentation, you’re being honest with the officer upon entry, you’ve not committed any crimes, you’ve not overstayed your visa, you’ve not violated your status, you should not have any issue.”
Worries over foreign workers’ travel spiked as a result of Trump’s earlier attempts to limit the number of people on the H-1B, combined with his administration’s high-profile deportations of non-citizens, including those with criminal records, student Gaza war protesters, and people deemed to be gang members based in some cases solely on tattoos and clothing who have been flown to a notorious maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
Meanwhile, federal authorities have boosted scrutiny of visa applicants and work visa holders, and the U.S. Department of State is conducting a comprehensive review of visa categories, “which adds to the sense of unpredictability,” said Priscilla Muhlenkamp, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer at prominent immigration law firm Fragomen.
Muhlenkamp advises people on work visas, especially those whose renewals are pending or who need to adjust their visa status, to speak with an immigration lawyer before leaving the U.S., “as reentry may carry added risks or delays.”
American embassies abroad are taking a close look at work visa applicants, including asking for social media handles and about research publications and organizations applicants have worked with, Bayley said. That depth of scrutiny was initiated during Trump’s first administration and continued through Joe Biden’s term in the presidency, Bayley noted.
Bayley said she has held a handful of town halls for Bay Area companies, and her firm has conducted many more across the country. Online misinformation and rumors have boosted fears among visa workers, Bayley said. “Our job is to really educate our clients and their employees on what’s really happening, what the law says, and how we’re going to comply with that,” Bayley said. “Giving people facts helps to alleviate that anxiety.”
Also complicating travel decisions for employers and visa workers from certain countries are the Trump administration’s proposed but paused travel bans for citizens of certain countries. It is unclear when the bans may be imposed and whom they would target, Bayley said.
“We know that’s coming,” Bayley said. A client company just came to her about potential travel by an employee who was born in Iran, Bayley said. “That’s a really difficult call to make because we don’t know what those travel bans are going to say and what they’re going to limit.”
Trump in his first term issued bans on travel to the U.S. for citizens of Burma, Eritrea, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Nigeria, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Venezuela, Yemen and, temporarily, Chad.
Further unease surrounds the fate of the H-1B visa. Intended for workers with specialized skills, the visa has become a flashpoint in the immigration debate. Silicon Valley tech firms push to expand the annual 80,000 cap on new visas, and critics point to cases of U.S. workers being replaced by visa holders and to research suggesting companies use the visa not only to obtain top talent but to employ foreign workers at cheaper rates and drive down wages.
Deep divisions over the visa exist among people close to Trump, with Bay Area venture capitalist and Trump tech adviser David Sacks, along with Department of Government Efficiency leader Elon Musk supporting the visa, while it is vociferously opposed by Trump’s far-right adviser Steve Bannon and Trump’s close confidante, conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer.
Trump in 2016 vowed to “end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program” but late last year expressed backing for the visa. Which side in the dispute he ultimately supports, said Duehning, remains to be seen.