President Donald Trump’s executive order directing a thorough review of the H-1B visa program for highly skilled foreign-born workers could turn out to be a lot better than many of the program’s defenders feared, writes Adams Nager on MarketWatch. The White House says the goal is to crack down on fraud and abuse in the system by strictly enforcing existing laws, and to ensure visas are awarded based on merit rather than chance. These are sensible ideas for reform that should mollify critics who claim that H-1B workers too often replace U.S. workers instead of filling openings that would otherwise have stayed vacant. As long as the administration recognizes the need to continue attracting the world’s best and brightest—and takes a careful, “mend it, don’t end it” approach to carrying out the president’s order—the result can be beneficial for the U.S. economy.
