Giving Compass' Take:

• The 74 reports that 25 Baltimore teachers may be forced to leave the country as the Trump administration makes it more difficult to get extensions for H-1B visas.

• What is the impact of removing teachers from classrooms? Is this an appropriate change to the H-1B visa program? 

• Find out how aggressive immigration enforcement affects schools.

After teaching in the city for more than a decade, about 25 Baltimore teachers could soon be forced to leave — not just their jobs, but the country they have come to call home.

Many of the teachers came to the U.S. in the mid-2000s with work visas to make up for a shortage of American teachers in the city. Most of the educators came from the Philippines, which had a “surplus of education majors.” At least two are from Jamaica, the Baltimore Sun reported.

The teachers have H-1B visas, granted to immigrants with specialized skills that the United States needs, with support from specific employers. The visas, often used in the technology sector, allow workers to stay for three years and can be extended beyond that. Workers can eventually get permanent resident status, but it can take years.

The school district applied for the teachers’ visas to be renewed months ago, but the federal government has selected the case for an audit and dragged out the process, the district’s chief human capital officer, Jeremy Grant-Skinner, told the Sun.

The immigrants’ legal status ends when their visas expire, even if they have filed for an extension, and the Trump administration has been taking steps to restrict the program.

Read the full article about H-1B visa reform by Laura Fay at The 74.