Trump Targets the Abuse of H-1B Visas

An anonymous reader writes: As part of Trump's comprehensive immigration overhaul, his plan not only addresses immigrants who enter or stay in the country illegally, but also the H-1B visa program and its well-documented abuses. Parts of the proposal include requirements to offer positions to U.S. STEM graduates and effectively requiring a minimum wage for hiring out of the country that would make it prohibitive to do so.

Comments

Amazing

[Anonymous Coward]

I might actually vote for him because of this policy. Never thought I would say that.

Re: Amazing

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF are you talking about?

The H1-b visa is government meddling in the free market because of lobbying by tech firms who wanted to increase the supply of workers to reduce wages.

Here's another way wages have been reduced, increased working hours for the same pay - actually lower because of inflation.

2001 C++ programmer made 80k around here working 40 hours a week- maybe a couple weeks a year of 60+ hours.

Now it is 65k a year and 60 hour weeks are the norm.

Don't like it? Well, you are unqualified and lack the skills to work here.

You kids haven't seen how this profession has deteriorated in the 20 years. And much of that is because business bribed Congress to import indentured servants from third world countries with inferior educations.

Re:Amazing

[Nyder]

Of course you might. There's nothing like America for single-issue voting.

"Well, yeah, he's a complete idiot, and he'll plunge our country into a new depression, and half the population will starve to death, and the other half will eat them to stay alive, but there might be a few more jobs for American tech workers at the end of it!"

Actually Trump wouldn't hurt the country that much. Most laws he will try to pass probably will get vetoed by Congress or the Senate (forget who vetoes who) and when they try to pass laws, he's veto them because that is the sort of asshole he is.

And unlike how Obama lets congress do whatever, we'd have high comedy when Trump talks smack about them all the time.

Re:Amazing

[msauve]

"scientific models"

That's an oxymoron. "Scientific" implies testable hypothesis. But, as soon as one of these models deviates from reality, they change the model instead of the hypothesis.

Re: Amazing

[Rogue974]

I am glad that your experience on the H1-B Visa program has been a trivial task for you. That is not always the case though.

At a previous company, we had an H1-B visa employee that we hired from another company and despite the fact he was sponsored by the other company and we were willing to sponsor him, he almost got deported because of the process of handing off from 1 company to another did not go smoothly.

He worked for us for 3 years, and then went to another job and again, almost ended up deported. It was a nightmare on both ends.

I also know a few H1-B visa employees at my current place of employee who have had similiar fears.

Citizen loses a job or goes to another job, nothing happens. H1-B Visa person always has the possibility of being kicked out of the country if HR screws up the sponsorship.

I am not part of the IT tech industry, but chemical manufacturing and the people I know have been electrical or chemical engineers and not working for Google or other big names like those you mention. So while ti can be smooth, you are 1 HR screw up away from losing your status and being deported.

I am glad you have worked for companies who have it down well enough that their HR has worked for you, but that is by no means the norm for smaller companies.

Re:Amazing

[Crashmarik]

So is it settled science that we can base policy on, or is it still not giving accurate prediction over the time period in question ?

Re:Amazing

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not nice to antagonize them. They're right, they know they're right, they just can't prove it yet. One piece is missing, that's all!

This does sound like another group's perspective about things too. There is a desired outcome, a belief that's been held for years -- all that they appear to do, at least to laymen -- is update their models/theories/whatever to keep them inline with their original belief. That way, no matter what happens, they're always right.

Re:Amazing

[xfizik]

That "someone" didn't get Russia, China, France and Britain to sit down and negotiate with Iran. Those countries never had as big as problem with nuclear Iran as the U.S. did/does. It was mostly the other way around - the U.S. threatening Iran and the others with leaving the talks and keeping the sanctions every other day.

But but he's bad with women!

[MikeRT]

It's amazing that we live in a society where people constantly complain that bad boys clean up with women and we have a bad boy worth billions, saying what's on the minds of 10s of millions while the "respectable candidates" dither and call for "civility" and people think he's going to lose hard with women.

My prediction: if it's Sanders or O'Malley, he'll clean their clock with the female vote. Even Hillary will be shocked to find a lot of women defecting because Trump will be the first alpha maleish candidate we've had since at least Kennedy.

People will vote for him because his response to things like China will not be civil, but "fuck you and fuck the horse you rode in on." Trump is a candidate that Putin will respect; most of the candidates from either party, not so much.

Re:well hot damn

[Chris Johnson]

Oh, he's intelligent all right.

He'll lose, but could literally move to Texas, secede, and become King. He could open hotels in every red state and increase his wealth by an order of magnitude: and you think Sarah Palin was a media darling after the McCain/Palin campaign?

Donald Trump doesn't have to win the Presidency to get an insanely huge return on THIS investment. Those aren't voters he's courting. They're obsessive lifelong customers bordering on worshippers, in a cult of personality that suits him just fine. This will make the Apple cult of Jobs look smalltime.

In the Fox debate, Trump was literally on the central throne, the position of power, all the lesser pols lined up to the sides helplessly. He is loving this and will continue to love it and have the most hyoooogely awesome time ever.

If I could have as much fun as Trump is having, telling the truth, I'd count it a life well spent.

Re:well hot damn

[Nidi62]

One way to look at it is that Trump is already one of the richest people in the world -- he doesn't need to use the office to become rich, which is generally what happens when someone elected to office isn't yet rich.

There are very few rich people who stop trying to become even richer. You can always have more money. Populist policies, setting up a cult of personality, a penchant for making money: Trump wants to be an American Putin.

Also in The Register

[Sara Chan]

There is another (I believe better) article about this in The Register: “Donald Trump dumps on Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg”. Some quotes from Trump, extracted from the article, are below.

We graduate two times more Americans with STEM degrees each year than find STEM jobs, yet as much as two-thirds of entry-level hiring for IT jobs is accomplished through the H-1B program. More than half of H-1B visas are issued for the program's lowest allowable wage level, and more than eighty percent for its bottom two. Raising the prevailing wage paid to H-1Bs will force companies to give these coveted entry-level jobs to the existing domestic pool of unemployed native and immigrant workers in the U.S., instead of flying in cheaper workers from overseas. This will improve the number of black, Hispanic and female workers in Silicon Valley who have been passed over in favor of the H-1B program.

Mark Zuckerberg’s personal Senator, Marco Rubio, has a bill to triple H-1Bs that would decimate women and minorities.

Re:Standing up for American workers

[ranton]

Now when he starts screaming about capital gains being taxed higher, then I'll start listening to him.

This is precisely what he has been screaming about. Here is the first article you will find if you google for "warren buffett capital gains tax":
A Minimum Tax for the Wealthy. It was written by Warren Buffett in 2012. When he talks the decades when our capital gains taxes were almost double what they are now, he says "Never did anyone mention taxes as a reason to forgo an investment opportunity that I offered.

He does want excessive incomes derived from capital gains to be taxed higher, so are you listening now?