American workers are in a terrible spot right now. The unemployment rate, 14.7%, is the worst since the Great Depression. Getting the economy back to where it was before the COVID-19 pandemic will not be easy or immediate. Small businesses likely won’t have enough money to hire as many people this summer as they hoped, indicating that the unemployment rate will remain pretty high.

So what can the federal government do about it? Suspend temporary low-skill, nonimmigrant visa programs such as the H-2B, J-1 summer work travel (primarily used by foreign college students), and Q-1 programs for at least a year.