A day after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the scrapping of Australia's 457 visas, President Donald Trump has ordered federal agencies to look at tightening the USA temporary visa program.
Trump said his order aims to reevaluate USA trade deals with foreign governments and enforce "Hire American" rules - saying too many domestic jobs have been taken by foreign workers through widespread "abuses" in the United States' immigrant work visa program.
"With this action we are sending a powerful message to the rest of the world", he said.
"With this order, I am directing every single agency in our government to strictly uphold our "buy American" laws, to minimise the use of waivers and to maximise "made in America" content in all federal projects".
"But this election, the American people voted to end the theft of American prosperity".
Trump said widespread abuse of programs such as the H-1B visa has resulted in American employees of all backgrounds being replaced by workers brought in from other countries for less pay. "Instead, they should be given to the most skilled and highest paid" and should "never, ever be used to replace Americans".
President Donald Trump is ordering the government to bolster protections for US-made goods and reform a visa program for foreign workers.
Dan Kowalski, a Denver-based immigration attorney, said Trump's executive order can't actually change the existing H-1B law.
India's No. 2 IT Services firm, Infosys, has said it is ramping up work on on-site development centers in the United States to train local talent in an effort to address the visa regulation changes under consideration. During the trip, he's expected to sign what his aides are calling a "Buy American, Hire American" executive order.
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The steps announced Monday come when the United States opens the annual allocation of some 85,000 H-1B visas.
In addition to addressing the visas issue, he also ordered a review of government procurement rules favoring American companies to see if they are actually benefiting, especially the USA steel industry.
During his campaign, Trump said he supported high-skilled visas but later came out against them.
The "hire American" element of the order will focus on preventing H-1B visa holders from "undercutting American labor at less cost", according to one senior official.
The presidential order requires the USA departments of Labor, Justice, Homeland Security and State to come up with a plan to stop the "fraud and abuse" of the programme.
H-1B visas are intended for foreign nationals in "specialty" occupations that generally require higher education, which according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) includes, but is not limited to, scientists, engineers or computer programmers.
The use of H-1B visas by American companies is commonplace in the technology industry. They included a promise to pursue more investigations of fraud and abuses, and a warning to employers applying for the visas not to discriminate against USA workers. "The foundation of a strong Buy America program is the longstanding requirement that all iron and steel-making processes occur in the USA for a product to be Buy America compliant - from the actual steel production to the finishing processes".
The H-1B, a temporary visa for foreign workers to fill high-tech jobs in the USA, has been targeted by both Democrats and Republicans for being unfair to American workers.
The administration will require companies to demonstrate that the visas are going only to the most highly skilled workers in their fields. Critics say the lottery benefits outsourcing firms that flood the system with mass applications. The president revived campaign stump speech lines and called the North American Free Trade Agreement a "complete and total disaster" for the US, promising either big changes or totally scrapping the sweeping trade accord. It established a 220-day review on waivers and exemptions to government "Buy American" rules.
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