The Vermont ski industry is worried about the Trump Administration's review of the J-1 Visa exchange program which allows resorts to hire some foreign workers. "This program is an ambassadorship program. You get incredible students who come on up and are enthusiastic and hard working. They go back to their home country and share the incredible experiences they've had here in Vermont," says Ski Vermont President Parker Riehle.

The now US President-elect Donald Trump promised to end the long-standing J-1 Visa programme last August, which would bring about the end of what has become an institution for generations of Irish students. But will his administration actually axe the programme? [...] While concern over the long-term future of the J1 Visa programme is understandably high after the election results of November 8th, the Honourable Kevin O’Malley, Ambassador of the United States of America to Ireland, doubts that Trump’s administration will actually go ahead with the proposed change.

In a July 15 Roll Call opinion piece, “Don’t Devalue Exchange Programs in Immigration Reform,” Michael Petrucelli argues that the Senate immigration bill was wrong to include basic labor protections for the more than 100,000 student guestworkers who come to the U.S. each year through the J-1 visa program. Petrucelli argues that these workers aren’t really workers, but cultural exchange participants, and that the J-1 Exchange Visitor program isn’t really a guestworker program, but a tool of public diplomacy.

A provision in the immigration bill now being considered by Congress could change things. Bill Gertz, CEO of the American Institute for Foreign Study, the organization that sponsored Davies, says the proposed legislation could kill these exchange programs.