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United States Businesses

Trump To Expand Coronavirus-Related Immigration Restrictions (axios.com) 284

The Trump administration will ban entry into the U.S. for foreigners on certain temporary work visas -- including high-skilled H-1B visas -- through the end of the year, senior administration officials told reporters Monday afternoon. From a report: The highly-anticipated immigration restrictions expand on President Trump's earlier coronavirus-related immigration ban introduced in late April -- which was also extended through the end of the year. Trump has leveraged emergency powers and economic concern from the coronavirus to slowly shut down large parts of the immigration system -- even as he urges states to reopen. The administration also announced Monday that it is working toward permanent regulatory reforms that would crack down on H-1B visas and work permits for asylum seekers. The official said these steps could open up 525,000 U.S. jobs. In addition to H-1B visas often relied on by big U.S. tech companies, the restrictions on entry will also affect visas for H-1B spouses, non-agriculture worker H-2Bs visas, short-term workers on J-1 exchange visas, and L visas, which allow companies to transfer employees working overseas to U.S. offices.

Further reading: Trump plan to ban H1-B will hurt Indian techies.
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Trump To Expand Coronavirus-Related Immigration Restrictions

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  • by ErichTheRed ( 39327 ) on Monday June 22, 2020 @04:20PM (#60214386)

    I hate to say it, but I agree with this one. So few H-1Bs actually go to "exceptional, world class" genius level talent that it might as well be a rounding error. All the offshore outsourcers get the visas and use them to bring in an on-site person for way below the market rate. The minimum salary is $60K if I remember correctly, which is poverty level in Silicon Valley or NY. This is how you get "DBAs" with multiple Ph.Ds who can't do simple administration tasks. It's just an excuse to have a second-class workforce that the tech companies can exploit because they're desperate or the outsourcers can use to line their pockets.

    I think the letter of the law is fine...let people come who are bright, credentialled appropriately and will enrich the companies they work for. The spirit of the law is the thing I've got the problem with...FAANGs shouldn't be able to get away with paying practically nothing for developers, and "outsource everything" companies shouldn't be sent the B-Team to fill the only jobs their vendor doesn't do offshore. Just end the loopholes and I'd be fine with it. I'm mid-career and see what has happened in the 2000s/2010s to entry-level talent. All the IT people ended up going to coder bootcamp and becoming JavaScript monkeys because they saw that the outsourcers were just flooding the market with cheap labor. As a result we have a huge hole in the infrastructure side that I feel still needs to be filled.

    Unfortunately I definitely see companies using COVID as an excuse to offshore any remaining IT jobs they have, so it makes sense to deny the Cognizants and Accentures and IBMs of the world a way to juice their contract margins and give them an exploitable workforce. Also unfortrunately, I see this is an obvious election-year move that will convince some people to give Trump another 4 years...which I can't see ending well for normal average Americans.

    • by Cylix ( 55374 )

      Sponsorship for citizenships are still ontrack.

      Exceptional people are still being fast tracked (which is a good thing).

      I'm aware of more then one case for the company I work for that are ongoing. The people being sponsored are very good and absolutely deserve it. They will be a credit to our community.

      This is H1-B1 which is entirely a different matter.

    • they would have done so already. Not that they aren't busy trying to automate them, mind you. But these days an H1-B isn't cheaper than an American. Even the long work hours aren't a factor given how high real unemployment is.

      What makes H1-Bs desirable is that they're already trained and they're trained for cheap in their home country.

      And yeah, I don't trust Trump. He could've done this 4 years ago (and indeed Candidate Trump promised to). All he had to do is direct his agencies to enforce the law as
      • by kenh ( 9056 ) on Monday June 22, 2020 @05:45PM (#60214810) Homepage Journal

        And yeah, I don't trust Trump. He could've done this 4 years ago (and indeed Candidate Trump promised to). All he had to do is direct his agencies to enforce the law as it is written. This seems like election year red meat. And that means as soon as he's safely in his second term it's back to business as usual.

        So, Trump promised to do it, now he's doing it, and you think it's just a "trick" to get re-elected? I'm gonna let you in on a little secret, every day politicians do things in an effort to get re-elected, the only politicians that don't are the ones that are either in their last term-limited term, or exiting politics. Trump still has one more term as President available to him, and he wants it. Only Trump gets criticized for following thru on campaign promises.

        • and waited until 5 months before election, and that he ran on doing it and not caring about what anyone else said about it then yes, I think it's a trick.

          Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, you can't, you can't fool me again...
        • by sjames ( 1099 )

          I think the problem people are having is that he promised to do it 4 years ago.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ljw1004 ( 764174 )

      FAANGs shouldn't be able to get away with paying practically nothing for developers

      ?? They don't. Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google, Microsoft pay extraordinarily high salaries to their developers. I'm sure there are companies who pay low rates to their H1-B developer employees, but they're not the FAANG companies.

    • So few H-1Bs actually go to "exceptional, world class" genius level talent that it might as well be a rounding error.

      Citation Required. No I'm serious. I'm genuinely curious as to what the breakdown is. Reading this site I conclude 100% of H1Bs are Indian call centre workers. My own experience is 100% of H1Bs are engineers who are absolute experts in their field brought in by companies with really fat pay checks (a company I worked with shut down and most of my colleagues ended up in the states on H1Bs earning stupidly high dollars.

      Truth is usually somewhere in the middle.

    • Also, universities love their H1-Bs. Perhaps that's something also that needs to be looked at since they do not count towards the cap.
    • I hate to say it, but I agree with this one. So few H-1Bs actually go to "exceptional, world class" genius level talent that it might as well be a rounding error.

      What I know is this is going to screw my team. A person who just joined us is a top tier talent -- PhD in CS, focused on cryptographic security, writes great code and crazy smart, it's amazing how quickly she's gotten up to speed on our very complex environment -- and I think this may just block her. Right now she's on a student visa (she just completed her PhD a few months ago) and is in the process of getting an H1-B.

      All the offshore outsourcers get the visas and use them to bring in an on-site person for way below the market rate.

      The person I'm talking about is a regular full-time hire by Google, complete with nice annual bonus and equity awards, and the immigration team is already planning how to quickly get her a green card and out of "indentured servitude". I'm not going to quote numbers but as her manager I can see what she's being paid, and it's the same thing anyone else with her background would get. There's no cost savings here, she was hired because people with her background and ability are just plain rare and you have to hire globally to be able to find enough of them. The US doesn't produce enough -- which is not a criticism of the US, we only have 4% of the world's population, we've got to expect that a high percentage of the world's smart people are from the 96%.

      • if we hadn't pulled the funding from colleges. When I was a lad the school my kid just graduated from was $3400/yr. I paid $16k/yr. That's about $10k more (give or take) above inflation.

        That's because state & federal funding go pulled. My education was _heavily_ subsidized. But why was mine so heavily subsidized and my kid's wasn't?

        Simple, the mega-corps figured out they could just import as much labor as they wanted to and not have to pay for all that training.

        There's nothing all that amazin
    • by fermion ( 181285 )
      Practically speaking, the way the law is written is suboptimal because it allows companies to basically create indentured servants at low wages.

      Also, practically speaking, it is useful because the US thrives when we compete fully and have access to worldwide talent. It is a problem for those in the US would think they have an inherent right to work, above those who may be more talented, more educated, and harder working, but it is good for the economy because we can get the best out of a world wide pool.

    • by sjames ( 1099 )

      That's the thing. H1-B should have been sharply limited a long time ago. There should never be a situation where someone trains their H1-B replacement (if they were good enough to actually be an H1-B as defined in the law, they would need at most a bit of orientation).

      Of course, Trump said he'd do this 4 years ago, and it's only happening just now.

  • by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Monday June 22, 2020 @04:27PM (#60214406) Homepage

    It's a little late to be worrying about immigrants bringing in their Covid-19. This is entirely just an excuse to push his anti-immigration agenda.

    Seen the photos of the latest Trump rally? Trump isn't even concerned enough with Covid-19 to require his supporters to wear masks. And before someone makes the false equivalence of comparing it to the BLM protests, keep in mind that protests don't have a centralized authority which can tell people there's a pandemic on and maybe it's not such a great idea to go looting today. Presidential campaigns do.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by kenh ( 9056 )
      It's not about Covid, it's about jobs - take a look at the Whitehouse Press Release:

      In addition, pursuant to Proclamation 10014, the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Homeland Security reviewed nonimmigrant programs and found that the present admission of workers within several nonimmigrant visa categories also poses a risk of displacing and disadvantaging United States workers during the current recovery.

      American workers compete against foreign nationals for jobs in every sector of our economy, including against millions of aliens who enter the United States to perform temporary work. Temporary workers are often accompanied by their spouses and children, many of whom also compete against American workers. Under ordinary circumstances, properly administered temporary worker programs can provide benefits to the economy. But under the extraordinary circumstances of the economic contraction resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak, certain nonimmigrant visa programs authorizing such employment pose an unusual threat to the employment of American workers.

      Source [whitehouse.gov]

  • Yawn (Score:4, Insightful)

    by BishopBerkeley ( 734647 ) on Monday June 22, 2020 @04:36PM (#60214450) Journal
    Trump's encouraging the states to open against the recommendations of public health experts has resulted in a dramatic rise in CoVid-19 transmission in the US. As such, extension of travel restrictions is purely a campaign ploy to convince his gullible followers that he's helping to control the spread of the virus. To the contrary, he is aiding the virus's resurgence domestically. SARS-CoV-2 does not need the help of immigrants to spread in the US. So, yes, while it's technically the "correct" thing to do, it serves more to protect visitors from Americans rather than us from visitors. CoViD-19 is nearly out of control in the US, primarily thanks to the public's ignorance of directives from public health experts at the behest of irresponsible politicians.
  • now isn't the time to be bringing in foreign workers. The H1-B program is for labor shortages, not for the "best of the best", there's another, separate program for that. You'd have a hard time arguing that there are shortages for the next 2 years at least.
    • by k6mfw ( 1182893 )
      I wonder if the need to bring in foreign workers for IT and computer stuff is necessary because many of our schools don't teach it, or don't prepare K-12 students an education that they can use for IT and computer classes. Many other countries probably the same but hiring foreigners enable to fish in other places besides the US for skilled people. With all that's going on, many people out of work, a huge tax break was passed recently, governments less money to spend on schools,... it further contributes to
      • No, the need is because companies want to pay less, and the indentured-servitude features of the H1B visa, coupled with the boost to their career in their home country, let them do so.

        How it works:
        "Recruiter" calls someone like me, with 20+ years experience. "Here's a job in a city you don't live in. It requires 5 years experience, so it pays like a 5-year experience job, aka a big pay cut. No relocation, and you have to pay for your own travel for an in-person interview."

        Even if I did pay to fly myself

  • by 140Mandak262Jamuna ( 970587 ) on Monday June 22, 2020 @04:49PM (#60214514) Journal
    The sectors that really boomed and created world class dominance in computers in internet were dominated by top class graduates from the top class universities from China, India etc. But America has been losing the charm for Indians and the stream of high quality resumes from Indian students in American univs have dwindled to nothing. Indian H1-B pool is dominated by grads from second or third class schools, very unqualified but filled with ego far beyond their ability.

    Such moves will further erode America's ability to attract top talent. Intellectual achievement is highly non uniform, it follows the power law two three or four levels.

    80 % of all inventions and breakthroughs are achieved by 20% of the inventors, power law of degree 1. Even in that 20%, the same rule applied, 4% of inventors responsible for 64% of all inventions, second degree. Even that 4% it applies again, 0.8% of the inventors responsible for 51.2% of all inventions. This power law applies to many other fields, income, net worth, crime ...

    With China emerging as a hostile power willing to play hardball with its manufacturing clout, USA can not afford to lose Indian talent. Simply changing the rules to make H1B applicable only for people with US university degrees would be a good change that will weed out resume padding, lying and third class graduates from India being treated equal to grads from MIT and Caltech.

    • does that make to me? I don't see any of the wealth they generate. I paid for my kid's college out of pocket thanks to 30+ years of state & federal funding cuts. We don't have a single payer healthcare system. There's no housing guarantee, unemployment is difficult to get and pays very little (the extra $600/mo runs out at the end of the month).

      We completely dismantled all the systems that redistributed the wealth generated by Immigrants. Why should you be surprised when the working class doesn't gi
      • all the things I said we don't get I would like to get (I'm a Democratic Socialist). But these Neo Liberals who want wide spread immigration without social programs to distribute that wealth are trying to have the cake and eat it. All that gets you is more guys like Trump.
      • Why do you assume I think any differently than you do? I got my world class education in a top Indian school paid for by poor tax payers of India. I pay huge amount in taxes to USA, happily. I have sent lots of money back to India, to charities, to alumni, foreign exchange India needs (or needed back then) and I invest in India funds.

        I am an American now, and my children's future depends on the continued growth and strength of USA.

        All the taxes I pay, our government gives to corporations, the "job creato

        • for those things.

          So far none of what you're suggesting is going to come to pass. The only politician in America pushing hard for those things, Bernie Sanders, just lost to a conservative (Joe Biden).

          We're running out of time. Something's going to give and soon. COVID-19 just upped the time table by several factors.

          And I'm not necessarily speaking to you personally, but rather the Neo-Liberals like Hilary Clinton who do nothing but tell us to "Learn to Code" while replacing us in the jobs we are
  • by dskoll ( 99328 ) on Monday June 22, 2020 @05:05PM (#60214584) Homepage
    What with most high-tech companies set up for remote working, why would an employer bother with an H1B visa? Just hire someone on contract and let them work from their home country.
  • by AndyKron ( 937105 ) on Monday June 22, 2020 @05:13PM (#60214636)
    Yes! Send all those highly skilled people to Canada. That will show us!
  • Two types of H1-Bs (Score:4, Informative)

    by stikves ( 127823 ) on Monday June 22, 2020 @05:17PM (#60214672) Homepage

    Unfortunately H1-B system was used in two different ones, one being really bad for everyone involved (except for the consulting companies).

    On one had, you have a specific person requested by the company. They really pay above market rates, and the persons have skills added to the workplace. In my own case, I was already here in the US, and working with a different visa for the same group. In many others people have already established themselves in US, and this is just allowing a standard way to a better work arrangement.

    On the other hand, there were companies getting a pool of applicants with no prior experience here. They were chosen randomly by the H1-B lottery system, and the intermediaries knew the system well enough to flood it hundreds of thousands of applications. And then those selected will actually be contracted out to other companies and reduce the market rates. (I see no fault in those people wanting to come to the US, this is a great country after all).

    • This is extremely easy to fix.

      All H1B visas are given out via a lottery. So companies using H1B visas in both of your listed ways have the same chance of getting one.

      Just sort by salary. If the workers really are the super-specialized candidates the company desperately needs, they'll pay a premium. If it's just an attempt to get cheap labor, they won't be able to.

      • Just limit it to degree from accredited Amertican universities. There is no justification in treating Caltech/MIT graduates on par with Crescent Engineering College, Middle of Nowhere, Some Random provimce, India or Degrees-for-cash university, P O Box 4324, Bangalore.
  • Partisan (Score:2, Insightful)

    by cygnusvis ( 6168614 )
    I keep hearing about how covid is not partisan. It is partisan when you support lockdown but not immigration restrictions.
    • Immigration restrictions do jack shit with the virus is already here, and spreading locally, and the countries supplying workers have a lower infection rate than the US.

  • by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Monday June 22, 2020 @09:38PM (#60215452)

    This will, of course, not work. If companies could hire US workers, they would have done so. But maybe the moron is only after open jobs so he can claim that he "created" them.

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