Skip to Content
News

Executive Order On Immigration Myth Vs Truth

The rumor mill has certainly been turning since President Trump signed into effect his Executive Order on immigration. People are scared and as a result believing anything, and spread false stories. We’ve done some digging, and are here to dispel the rumors.

• An H4 visa holder was deported in Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and her husband’s H-1B employer terminated him. – MYTH!

We followed up with this case, attempting to represent them pro bono if need be, and found no truth to the individuals even existing.

H-4 EAD is eliminated. MYTH

There is no mention of H-4 EAD in the executive order or any pending proposals.

STEM Extension has been eliminated. MYTH

There is no mention of STEM Extension in the executive order or any pending proposals.

• Green Card holders are not permitted to travel domestically. – MYTH

There are no issues with traveling domestically as a Green Card holder.

  • Green Card holders can travel internationally with no issues.
  • Previously there were a few cases of Green Card holders belonging to Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen arriving from international flights being detained, but that has since been rectified with further clarification from the Trump Administration

• A US Citizen in India was not permitted to board a flight to the USA. –MYTH!

US Citizens and Green Card holders are permitted to travel to the US with no issues, as per US law. The Executive Order does not affect this. The only potential issues could stem from traveling to and from the banned countries (Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen) if you are a national, but with American Citizenship you should have no problem.

We did some investigating on this particular situation and found no merit to it even occurring.

• Homeland Security Officers are frequenting popular Indian grocery stores such as Patel Brothers, and Apna Bazaar and stopping customers to check their legal status. –MYTH

We did some digging and found no merit to any situation like this occurring anywhere.

• H-1B minimum wage has been increased to $130,000 minimum. – MYTH

No immigration bill that will bring drastic changes has passed through Congress in over 10 years, so this bill is not expected to hold up. However, even if it did, the bill proposes to change wages for H-1B visa holders not per individual, rather addressing the exemption level of wages as a whole across all industries, which is not unusual to what normally happens every July 1 when prevailing wages increase. So rather than an exemption level wage of $60,000, the exemption level is now $130,000. This means that H-1B dependent employers must show that they are not displacing American workers in hiring mostly H-1B beneficiaries. This is not different from how things are currently operating within these industries and would not affect any of them majorly. For more information, please see: /news/541-130-k-minimum-wage-for-h-1b-in-rep-zoe-lofgren-s-bill-a-myth-not-fact

• Non-Immigrant visa holders from the seven banned countries (Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen) are not permitted to board flights to the USA. – TRUE!

• The Automatic Visa Revalidation (Drop Box) is closed and only in person visa interviews are valid. TRUE