Exclusive Leaked Docs: DHS Staffers Advocating for 'Buy American, Hire American' NAFTA Reform Told to 'Stand Down'

Senior administration officials quashed a letter from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) staff recommending the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer negotiate to end a little-known visa program that permits tens of thousands of Canadian and Mexican white-collar workers to work in America.

The DHS staffers were nearing completion of their letter to Lighthizer — who is overseeing the ongoing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) renegotiations — when they were told to “stand down.” Citing President Donald Trump’s policy of “Buy American, Hire American,” the letter was to highlight the detriment to American workers caused by the “Treaty National” (TN) visas included in the current version of NAFTA.

TN visas are part of a much larger set of H-1B, J-1, L-1 and OPT programs which fill a wide variety of desirable white-collar jobs with an army of at least one million resident foreign professionals.

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