President Donald Trump speaks at Snap-on Tools on Tuesday, April 18, 2017 in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Kiichiro Sato/AP/AP

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Kiichiro Sato/AP/AP

Approximately half of doctoral-level scientists and engineers working in the United States are foreign workers.

Many were initially hired under the H-1B visa. about 85,000 It recruits highly skilled professionals each year and allows them to work in the United States for up to six years.

But the incoming Trump administration has signaled it will crack down on H-1B visas; This could make it difficult for U.S. universities, research institutions, and technology firms to find enough highly educated workers.

The result could be similar to what happened in the UK after Brexit made it harder for European scientists to work there, he says Raymundo Báez-MendozaHe runs a laboratory at the Leibniz Institute for Primate Research in Göttingen, Germany.

“A lot of countries in Europe have benefited from Brexit in terms of catching up with some really great scientists working in Britain,” he says.

Báez-Mendoza says that “top talent is very mobile” in the scientific world.

His own resume shows this.

Báez-Mendoza was born in Mexico City, received his master’s degree in Tübingen, Germany, and his doctorate in Tübingen, Germany. He studied at the University of Cambridge in England, then worked as a postdoctoral researcher (under an H-1B visa) at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard before returning to Germany.

Báez-Mendoza’s laboratory is equally international. There are scientists from five countries, including the USA.

Visas under Trump administration

In 2017, just a few months into his first term as president, Donald Trump gave a speech at Snap-on Tools in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Standing in front of a flag of red, white and blue keys, he announced his plan to restrict visas for foreigners. scientists and engineers.

“Rampant abuse in our immigration system allows American workers of all backgrounds to be replaced by workers brought in from other countries to fill the same jobs, sometimes for less pay,” he said.

“This will stop,” he added.

Trump highlighted H-1B visas in his speech, perhaps unaware that Snap-on was using them to hire some of its employees.

He soon began issuing executive orders designed to restrict H-1B visas. And in 2020, it suspended new H-1Bs and some other temporary work visas.

President Biden will reverse many of these measures. But events affected him Leili MortazaviHe is a brain scientist who was born in Iran and is currently completing his PhD at Stanford University.

“I really love Stanford, the people here are great, the resources are amazing,” he says. “But I need to see what kind of changes will happen under Trump.”

Mortazavi almost missed his chance to go to Stanford because executive order In early 2017, this became known as the “Muslim ban”. It temporarily closed the border to most people with Iranian passports.

Mortazavi received a Canadian passport at the last minute.

Later, during Covid, Trump announced: a plan this would have deported him and many other international students who attended almost all classes.

“There was talk of asking all international students to return home, which was a very, very stressful time,” he says. “Luckily it didn’t happen, but I still remember it very, very vividly.”

Mortazavi said the second Trump administration is about to begin and he is worried about getting a visa to work in the US

One reason for this is that Trump appointed him as a member of parliament. Stephen MillerThe main architect of the president’s immigration strategy in his first term.

So Mortazavi is looking at business in other countries.

“There are a lot of great labs at the University of Toronto that are relevant to my work,” he says. “I also visited Oxford and University College London last summer and would really like to work with them.”

Research institutions are silent for now

Business and universities in Trump’s first term I went to court To object to certain changes to H-1B visas.

But for now, these institutions remain silent about the possibility of further restrictions.

Half a dozen universities and research institutions contacted for this article either did not respond or declined to make any public comment.

The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for information on the president-elect’s H-1B visa plans.