Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf called President Donald Trump’s executive order “a first step.”
“I think you’ll see additional steps. And in that executive order that the president issued yesterday, it actually directs the Department of Homeland Security, as well as the Department of Labor, to look at these non-immigrant or temporary visa programs, and come back to him with recommendations,” Wolf said during an April 23 appearance on Fox News.
“And that’s something that the department has been looking at for the past several months. So, we’re well underway, and look forward to presenting to the president those recommendations for additional steps.”
The order states that within 30 days, Wolf, and Secretary of Labor, Eugene Scalia, in consultation with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, shall review nonimmigrant programs and issue recommendations to Trump for other measures “appropriate to stimulate the United States economy and ensure the prioritization, hiring, and employment of United States workers.”
The White House said in a statement that Trump was asking officials in his administration to review guest worker programs to see whether additional measures “should be taken to protect American workers.”
The order, which Trump signed on Wednesday, bars “the entry into the United States of aliens as immigrants,” with several significant exemptions.
The order applies to aliens without a visa or travel documents who are outside the United States when the order goes into effect. The decree does not apply to permanent U.S. residents as well as spouses, children, and prospective adoptees of U.S. citizens.
The order targets “new immigrants who are coming to the U.S.; these are individuals that are competing with Americans for jobs,” Wolf said on Fox.
