Trump's freeze on new visas could threaten US dominance in AI

Even before president Trump's executive order on June 22, the US was already bucking global tech immigration trends. Over the past five years, as other countries have opened up their borders to highly skilled technical people, the US has maintained--and even restricted--its immigration policies, creating a bottleneck for meeting domestic demand for tech talent. Now Trump's decision to suspend a variety of work visas has left many policy analysts worried about what it could mean for long-term US innovation. In particular, the suspension of the H-1B, a three-year work visa granted to foreign workers in specialty fields and one of the primary channels for highly skilled tech workers to join the US workforce, could impact US dominance in critical technologies such as AI. "America's key competitors are going in a different direction," says Tina Huang, a research analyst at Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET).