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United States Businesses Government Technology

Biden Lifts Trump-Era Ban Blocking Legal Immigration To US (nbcnews.com) 242

President Joe Biden has lifted a freeze on green cards issued by his predecessor during the pandemic that lawyers said was blocking most legal immigration to the United States. From a report: Former President Donald Trump last spring halted the issuance of green cards until the end of 2020 in the name of protecting the coronavirus-wracked job market -- a reason that Trump gave to achieve many of the cuts to legal immigration that had eluded him before the pandemic. Trump on Dec. 31 extended those orders until the end of March. Trump had deemed immigrants a "risk to the U.S. labor market" and blocked their entry to the United States in issuing Proclamation 10014 and Proclamation 10052. Biden stated in his proclamation Wednesday that shutting the door on legal immigrants "does not advance the interests of the United States."

"To the contrary, it harms the United States, including by preventing certain family members of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents from joining their families here. It also harms industries in the United States that utilize talent from around the world," Biden stated in his proclamation. Most immigrant visas were blocked by the orders, according to immigration lawyers. As many as 120,000 family-based preference visas were lost largely because of the pandemic-related freeze in the 2020 budget year, according to the American Immigrant Lawyers Association.

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Biden Lifts Trump-Era Ban Blocking Legal Immigration To US

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  • Isn't the US in lockdown now and most tech workers are working from home?
    Why don't you just let them work from home, why do you need to physically bring them to America when it'll be functionally the same?

    Rereading the summary I can't see anything about tech workers, so why is this on Slashdot if it's not about tech? I need to find a tech aggregator that actually aggregates tech news
    • Re: Why (Score:2, Insightful)

      by rhook ( 943951 )

      Democrats are importing voters not workers

      • by NFN_NLN ( 633283 )

        Now that mail in voting is widely accepted, why can't they just mail in their votes from their own countries! /s

        • Now that mail in voting is widely accepted, why can't they just mail in their votes from their own countries!

          Some of them do! Like the one that used to "vote living in our house by absentee ballot from abroad" for years, while we tried to get him off the rolls. (He was finally removed after we got a reporter interested in trying to prove we were lying who found out we wern't.)

          The corpse of one of our next-door neighbors was also voting absentee for years. Don't know from where - the voter registration fo

      • Republicans are using workers, not voters, and purposefully not enforcing the laws that would prevent businesses from doing that.

      • Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

        by Rinikusu ( 28164 )

        Greencard holders can't vote in US elections you dumb fuck. And for whatever strange reason almost all of my (male) Indian coworkers were all aboard the Trump Train.

      • Democrats are importing voters not workers

        How many H1-Bs and greencard holders are eligible to vote?

        • If Democrats have their way all of them. Hell in California they're letting illegals vote in some local elections already.

    • Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

      by DRJlaw ( 946416 )

      Isn't the US in lockdown now...

      Why no, we're not [nytimes.com]. We chock full of states governed by Republicans who insist that any restrictions are unacceptable intrusions upon liberty and America must reopen.

      So, we're reopened, to green card holders too. They're getting exactly what they want. Ok, not really, because a lot of them don't want immigrants coming to the U.S., but it's hard to justify closing just that in response to COVID, now isn't it.

      BTW, not all green card applicants are tech workers.

      ereading the sum

  • If there was a block put into place on immigration, then by definition, this immigration would be illegal.
  • Oy vey (Score:2, Interesting)

    What's with all the losers on slashdot who apparently can't compete with foreigners for a job? Last time I checked Google and Tesla were founded by immigrants. Americans are lazy as fuck and so entitled. Ya'll settle on a continent that is barely even settled with so many empty land in the middle and then put up a sign that says "keep out" all while jerking off and not doing anything. Get off your fat lazy entitled asses and get a fucking job or start a business. Republican conservatives are the laziest w
    • Re: Oy vey (Score:2, Informative)

      by rhook ( 943951 )

      Corporations import H1-B workers so that they can pay less than the going rate for the job. It's hard to compete with that.

      • they're paying about the going rate these days and only working them 40-50 hr/wk as is the custom.

        What H1-Bs get you is training and disposablility. College in America is *expensive*. And that means you have to pay at least enough that your American employees can buy food, shelter and pay their student loans. Pre H-1B abuse companies had to fund the schools with federal dollars so people could afford to go & learn the skills needed to be profitable worker bees. But H1-Bs? They're educated on somebod
        • they're paying about the going rate these days

          What kinda bullshit statement is this?

          The going rate is defined by whats being paid. Of course they are being paid the going rate.

          The problem is that supply and demand effects this value. Your bullshit completely broken logic corporate cock sucking narrative better get on board.

    • There might be an entitlement component to this, but Americans aren't willing to live four families in a tenement apartment, like Indian visa workers are.

      The problem isn't the Americans' demands, it's the fact that workers on visa are willing to accept these poor standards of living.

      The real solution is to elevate *everyone's* living standards and pay a fair price for their efforts.
    • On the one hand, I don't necessarily disagree with much of what you're saying.
      On the other hand, you're not a citizen of this country, so how about you shut the fuck up and mind your business? I'm sure whatever shithole weak broke-ass excuse for a country you come from is likely corrupt as fuck and otherwise totally irrelevant to the rest of the world, could be erased from the map and no one would notice, so how about you bugger off?
  • "It also harms industries in the United States that utilize talent from around the world," Biden stated in his proclamation"

    It is all about screwing over US tech workers by diluting salaries. There is a reason tech salaries haven't grown at a pace with tech companies themselves... pretending some kind of perpetual shortage of labor exists is it. Hell, at some point the important labor took over most strategic positions in the tech companies and then it became not just about dilluting the labor pool but also

    • There is a reason tech salaries haven't grown at a pace with tech companies themselves

      They haven't? Can you substantiate that claim?

      • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

        This isn't everyone, I'm too lazy for that but you certainly can't go by recruiter data.

        So lets us a real comparison.

        In 2012 had entry level positions for new bachelors and/or 2-4yrs experience would earn between $55-85k/yr depending on exact position. In contrast Facebook stock was $50/share. Facebook stock has grown almost 6X to $280/share but the realistic average salary maybe rates $65-95k/yr. If salaries had grown with the industry you'd be seeing $500k/yr+ average early career salaries. For people in

    • by Halo1 ( 136547 )

      There is a reason tech salaries haven't grown at a pace with tech companies themselves...

      It's not limited to tech companies, it's for pretty much the entire US economy [pewresearch.org] (and not just US, in fact), and has been that way for decades.

      • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

        Sorry but tech companies are the bulk of the US economy and grown at a rate that makes other sectors laughable. It is one thing to have failed to keep pace with with a 15% growth over a decade and quite another to be stagnant with 300+% growth. These are not strawberry picker jobs either but top 20% earning positions.

        They bury the imported labor in churn and funnel it through under bogus diploma mill student visa scams among other things. When you limit that, they start finding ways to outsource, again, hid

        • by Halo1 ( 136547 )

          Sorry but tech companies are the bulk of the US economy

          Sorry, but they're not [bea.gov]. Not even close.

          It is one thing to have failed to keep pace with with a 15% growth over a decade and quite another to be stagnant with 300+% growth. These are not strawberry picker jobs either but top 20% earning positions.

          You're absolutely correct that salaries have not kept pace in any way with the growth of the economy, and this holds for pretty much everywhere in at least "the West". The main reasons for that are that companies are doing everything with their money except for raising wages, including hoarding (hi, Apple), and distributing to shareholders (hi, every big company). Here's an summary article that goes into more detail [forbes.com]. H1B visa workers may be a part of them allowing to d

  • by superdave80 ( 1226592 ) on Friday February 26, 2021 @12:45PM (#61102716)

    It also harms industries in the United States that utilize talent from around the world.

    Translated from politician-ese: "We needs us lots of that cheap, cheap foreign labor..."

  • by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Friday February 26, 2021 @01:19PM (#61102882) Journal
    The real problem is so-called 'staffing companies', who are basically human-trafficking pimps, using foreign workers (and many domestic workers) like cheap whores, and the companies and corporations who utilize these 'staffing companies' are the Johns who are paying them. Staffing companies don't add anything of value to the equation, they just suck half or more of the money their paid for a whore -- excuse me, worker -- and give a pittance to the 'worker'.
    Meanwhile the 'workers' don't get any job security whatsoever, paid a pittance in comparison to having a real job, and only the corporations prosper.
    Clamp down on these shitty 'staffing companies' and the H1-B problem will likely correct itself.
    American companies need to hire REAL EMPLOYEES not just 'temps' that only stick around for the 6 months they're allowed by law.
    The benefits of this are not just for the workers, either, corporations will benefit from higher quality work when workers have an actual stake in the qualtity of what they're doing instead of knowing they can just skate by because they know they'll be gone.
  • by Faizdog ( 243703 ) on Friday February 26, 2021 @01:30PM (#61102944)

    I've said this before (including on /.) and will say it again, in the naive hopes that somehow these ideas will get to policy makers.

    A lot of people are against the H1B system, and rightfully so given how badly it's been abused to harm US workers. Also to harm the H1B folks. So it results in damage to the field overall by bringing in cheap body shop labor, treating them as pseudo indentured servants, while harming career prospects and wage growth for US folks, and hurting the employee base overall.

    On the other hand, there really is a valid problem that the H1B program was initially trying to solve, a shortage of qualified candidates for some roles (which are well paid and compensated).

    I've hired H1Bs throughout my career, including now, for some roles. Not as a blanket hiring policy, but for when we couldn't find candidates. They were hired in direct competition against all comers, and were truly the best candidates for us (not just due to technical background, but previous experiences, "social fit" etc). They are by far not the cheapest paid, and fall in the middle to high end of our distribution. The preference actually was to hire domestic candidates if we could find them. Communication and common cultural touchstones are easier, as well as less bureaucratic overhead. This is what I think the original purpose of the H1B program was.

    The current bureaucratic H1B process is a kafkaesque nightmare. DHS folks are really not qualified to judge jobs and backgrounds. As an example: Why is a PhD in stats or physics working as a "Machine Learning Scientist." That is not an appropriate degree for the role. Really?

    The H1B process has been wholly abused. But there was a legitimate and enduring need that it had tried to solve.

    The two quickest and easiest ways I've heard to solve this (which are not part of the current proposed "solutions") are:
    1) Run the H1B process as an auction not a lottery. The auction number/bid is the salary you will offer the candidate. You want a foreigner, pay for them. If their background, experience, etc are something you truly need, your dollars will speak for themselves. Will significantly mitigate the cheap body shop problem. Toy example: only 10 people allowed, H1B visas will be issued to the 10 folks who will be paid the highest salary (with some safeguards like that salary can't be reduced by more than 5% in total for the full H1B duration).
    2) Allow more mobility so that H1B workers are not so explicitly tied to an employer which lends itself to abuse.

    Finally, especially on /. we get stuck on H1Bs, but Trump had stopped all illegal immigration, including family based, refugee, etc. There is more to legal immigration than just employment based.

    • by Ichijo ( 607641 )

      I've hired H1Bs throughout my career, including now, for some roles. Not as a blanket hiring policy, but for when we couldn't find candidates.

      Let me guess. You don't know that the best talent is not on job boards [toggl.com]. You don't court developers while they still have jobs. You assume that when a good developer becomes dissatisfied with their job, that it isn't already too late to try to hire them because they've already chosen their next employer.

      So I don't think you really looked. But I like your two proposals

    • by ccguy ( 1116865 )

      1) Run the H1B process as an auction not a lottery. The auction number/bid is the salary you will offer the candidate.

      That means that only the companies that can afford them will get them, and of course those companies are in the most expensive places to live in in the first place. So you're very likely going to bring 80,000 new people to the Bay Area and New York every year, making things worse for people that have nothing to do with tech at all and just want to be able to live in those places. Plus this doesn't solve the fundamental problem for those H1B employees: The employer has them by the balls until they get the g

  • by MattMann ( 102516 ) on Saturday February 27, 2021 @04:30PM (#61106620)

    The article clearly states that Trump put the hold on till the end of 2020, therefore in 2021 there was nothing for Biden to do, so he's just grabbing headlines.

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