The Trump administration is expanding the scope of its immigration squeeze by targeting the foreign guest worker visa programme amid a furore in multinational corporations and a mutinous ferment in US government circles.

Globally engaged America is still coming to grips with the Trump decree staunching refugees and travel from se ven Muslim nations when it was revealed that a new presidential order, aimed at overhauling the guest worker programme that includes the H-1B visas, is in the works.

Technology companies, primarily in the US and India, have long used the visas to bring skilled foreign talent to America, in effect providing a route for Indian students and professionals to emigrate to the US.

"It's part of a larger im migration reform effort that the president will continue to talk about through executive order and through working with Congress," White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Tuesday , virtually confirming that the nearly-two-decade visa regime over three administrations, which has effectively facilitated the immigration of more than 500,000 Indians to the US since 1990, will now change.

Over 60% of Indian IT revenues comes from the US. Five top Indian IT companies lost Rs 33,000 crore in market cap in a single day on Tuesday following uncertainty about the new environment in the US.

Ahead of the expected executive order, lawmakers have introduced legislation mandating an increase in the minimum salary for H-1B visa guest workers to $130,000 (from the current $60,000) in an effort to shut down low-cost arbitrage that both US and Indian companies have used to improve their bottom line, but which critics say has depressed wages and come at the expense of American workers.

India has conveyed its reservations over the move to overhaul H-1B visas. "India's interests and concerns have been conveyed both to the US administration and US Congress at senior levels," MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said. The reaction has been muted as Delhi waits for the entire package.

(Times of India)