Trump’s Empty Crackdown on Overseas Coders Doesn’t Fix Tech Visas

Tech leaders found yet another reason to denounce President Trump today after federal immigration officials released seemingly stricter guidelines for the country’s high-skilled H-1B worker visa program. The backlash quickly built on social media as claims circulated that the Trump administration was preparing to limit the number of visas for computer programmers. But the threat doesn’t seem likely to live up to the hype.

Both critics and supporters of the H-1B program say these reports are overblown. In fact, they say, panicking about the putative changes plays right into the president’s hands. Trump has yet to fulfill his campaign season promise to change the way the H-1B visa program works—and now that the application process is open, he’s missed his chance for another year. Now it seems his administration is trying to appease his base by giving the impression he’s cracking down on visas. In reality, these guidelines probably won’t have much impact.