Visa crisis threatens San Francisco parents’ summer plans

Before the visa pause, Areton was already seeing the Trump administration’s immigration policies have a chilling effect on visa applicants. 

“Foreign students are scared, and foreign parents are scared,” he said. “They do not want to send their children to a country to get picked up off the street, deported, or harassed.” 

Without the camp counselors, au pairs, students, and other temporary immigrant workers who rely on visas, U.S. communities will pay the price, Areton added: “This is only going to punish American children.”

When Jamie Shurter, an anesthesiologist in Orinda, heard the news of the pause in issuing visas, she feared that her family — headed by two physicians with unpredictable hours — would face its first summer since 2018 without an au pair. After calling and texting the au pair she’s expecting to arrive in August, she received a photo of the visa and confirmation that all was well.

“We are going to be OK,” Shurter said. “But so many other families will not be.”