America Will Continue to Be a Country of Immigrants: US Envoy

Kenneth I Juster.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/Sriram‏)

The US will continue to be a country of immigrants and that will not change, newly- appointed American envoy Kenneth Juster said on Thursday, 11 December, while asserting that the ongoing review of visas, including the H-1B category, was only for "refinements".

Juster's comments came in the backdrop of reports that the Trump administration was considering tightening H-1B visa rules that could lead to deportation of about 7,50,000 Indians.

The US government, however, has denied these reports.

"We have 4 million Indian-Americans in the US. So we are a country of immigrants and that's what helped drive our economy and growth and made us where we are and that's not going to change," he said while delivering his first policy speech since taking over as ambassador.

He added that the US is looking at how various categories of visas are working and whether they need refinements.

We take more immigrants than any other country in the world.

Every year, the US grants 85,000 H-1B visas to highly skilled applicants, including roughly 70 percent for Indians, seeking employment and educational opportunities.

According to the National Foundation for American Policy, more than half of privately-held companies worth USD 1 billion or more in the US had at least one immigrant founder, with many entering America on an H-1B visa, including the CEOs of both Microsoft and Google

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