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]

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!"

Re:Amazing

[Anonymous Coward]

It's called hyperbole, and everyone does it.

Re:Amazing

[Anonymous Coward]

The also seem to have ensured illiteracy.

Re: Amazing

[beelsebob]

What on earth makes you think an H1B worker "isn't free to leave for a higher paying job"?

As someone in the US on an H1B, I can assure you, changing jobs is trivially easy (once you live in the bay area, and have something like "Google", "Uber" or "Apple" on your CV, everyone wants you). The process of changing jobs on an H1B involves exactly what it would do for a US citizen - go and interview, get the job, move. The only gotcha is that the other company must be willing to sponsor taking over the H1B (which is a tiny cost compared to the wage they'll be paying you).

Re:Amazing

[ProfBooty]

Trump has a political brilliance, a strategic brilliance, a thoroughness in showmanship unlike anything anybody else running has, a personal image perfect for maximizing his control over public opinion through the rhetorical strategy of hyperbole, and the money to do this his own way, right, without needing to be phony to satisfy some donor or other.

Doesn't mean he will be a great president, but his use of hyperbole sticks in many average voters minds as it move the goal posts in his direction, even if the numbers he uses are actual incorrect. It is a great rhetorical device.

Re:Amazing

[Crashmarik]

Why do you think a businessman would be for a free market? Businessmen prefer regulation in their favor over free markets any day.

This "businessman" has driven his various companies bankrupt on at least 3 occasions, and fancies himself a self-starter when he inherited all his money from his actually successful father. No wonder he's a Republican.

That's BS. Sure he inherited money but there's not many people that achieve a 10,000 % ROI.
I don't even like the guy and don't believe a word he is saying but I can't stand people that make shit up

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

[MightyMartian]

And that's the real issue. Trump makes a lot of claims and promises that would require Congress to cooperate, and looking at how Trump scores on the whole "get along with other people" index, it suggests that his Presidency, rather than being some great revolutionary change, would be four very long years of him shouting crude abuses at Congressional leadership.

Re:Amazing

[fey000]

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

This is true. No other president would be half as fun as Trump.

There may be a few nukes and world wars along the way, but the White House would be funnier than American Dad. Hell, I'm off to buy a year's supply of popcorn now.

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]

Yeah because that doesn't happen anyway
http://www.mercurynews.com/sci...

But hey never let a good crisis go to waste, when you can lie to move your agenda.

Re: Amazing

[ceoyoyo]

Sure it does. Business licenses are regulation. They can, and are, also abused sometimes. Joe Mayor's brother's kid gets that contractor license instead of Joe Blow. Import restrictions on things, including labour, are called "protectionism," which is the opposite of "free trade."

Americans are weird. You're so afraid of (OMG) socialism that you just redefine whatever regulation you find desirable as "free market."

Re:Amazing

[Yoda222]

We don't have an unified theory in physics yet. Should we stop to send electronics in space until we get something which can handle both quantum mechanic and gravity?

Awaiting Instructions From The Mother Ship

[Anonymous Coward]

I sense a great disturbance in the Force, as though millions of independent-minded correct-thinking Slashdotters crying out in confusion about what opinion they're supposed to have about Donald Trump...

Re:Awaiting Instructions From The Mother Ship

[AC-x]

Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day.

End the H1b program

[Anonymous Coward]

It was there to fill a claimed temporary shortage, but it had the inevitable result of driving down wages and thus reducing people training to enter the field. It should have been killed a long time ago, there are other visa categories that can be matched for skilled labour.

The H1b has some benefits for US employers, particularly it locks the employee in, they can't switch to a better job, Zuckerberg loves them, his slave army, but it gives H1Bs an advantage even for the same pay grade.

Plus at the end, they leave, fully trained, and ready to work at your offshore division for a wage lower than the US and above the local wage, thus exporting the job and the skills.

Scott Adams said it best...

[Karmashock]

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/1...

""
Like many of you, I have been entertained by the unstoppable clown car that is Donald Trump. On the surface, and several layers deep as well, Trump appears to be a narcissistic blow-hard with inadequate credentials to lead a country.

The only problem with my analysis is that there is an eerie consistency to his success so far. Is there a method to it? Is there some sort of system at work under the hood?

Probably yes. Allow me to describe some of the hypnosis and persuasion methods Mr. Trump has employed on you. (Most of you know I am a trained hypnotist and this topic is a hobby of mine.)
""

Trump is a complicated subject... because its insane... but the situation is so nutty that he starts to make sense... which tells you how insane the situation is...

Americans are furious. Both sides of the political spectrum.

Republicans are pissed.
Democrats are pissed.

No one trusts anyone.
Both side's politicians are full of shit.

There is a general consensus that the elites are fucking over the people at large.

The republicans tried to purge their own party with the "tea party" and similar things. Democrats only see this form their perspective but they don't realize that a fair amount of the animus was directed at the establishment republicans which is why the establishment doesn't like the tea party.

The democrats tried to purge their own party with stuff like code pink, occupy wall street, and now black lives matter.

And all of this is failing. The Establishment of both parties is very good at stonewalling this stuff. Black Lives Matter shows up to a Bernie speech and basically takes it over. They try the same thing at a Hillary speech and they don't even get in the front door. Think about that.

And that's basically what has been going on. So what is Donald Trump?

In my view, he's a purgative. A drug you take to induce vomiting. You accidentally eat poison... it has to get out. So you take a purgative... and you vomit.

The American electorate has been dry heaving for decades. We're that cat that just can't seem to get up that golf ball sized fur ball. And we just stand there back arched... dry heaving trying to get it out.

Do I like Donald? He's a weird guy. But I think BOTH parties should have someone like him running. Because Hillary is business as usual, Bernie is weak, and I've not seen anyone else out of them that is ready to challenge the establishment.

To paraphrase Augustus, "things that can't go on forever - don't."... The status quo is not acceptable. The corruption, the incompetence, the deceit... it has to stop.

We tried just voting them out. That failed.
We tried splinter political factions. That failed.
We tried lobbying and bribery to make them stop. That failed.

So... we're open to the "unstoppable clown car" that is Donald Trump.

If this fails as well... it just means the madness will be escalated another notch. This is not stopping.

Something that I think the establishment is starting to wake up to is that people are f'ing furious. And while some may giggle at the fury, it is unwise to not appreciate that people behave increasingly unpredictably as the fury builds. The sort of rage that is building is the kind where you rip off your OWN arm and beat someone to death with it. The establishment can't handle that.

I assume Donald is going to lose here... but whomever does win... whomever is in charge... they're going to have to change the way things are done. Because the whole "you need to pass the law to see what is in it" thing along with powerful people blatantly violating federal law and getting away with it... The big powerful companies fucking up and then getting bailed out by everyone that didn't fuck up.

This is starting to get dangerous.

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:But but he's bad with women!

[Anonymous Coward]

"Trump will be the first alpha maleish candidate we've had since at least Kennedy"

Did you forget Reagan?

Blind squirrel finding an acorn

[sjbe]

I'd be inclined to see whether his various business ventures have exhibited this sort of hiring policy; or whether he's a "Buy American!" sort of guy when looking for votes; and a buy Mexican sort of guy when looking for labor...

Trump CLEARLY would never say anything that wasn't true or self serving... [/sarcasm]

Seriously, anyone thinking of actually voting for this guy is an idiot. Trump may be good for a laugh but he is not presidential material. We need someone who will actually try to understand issues before spewing whatever dumb idea jumps first into his mouth. Someone who has more nuance to their rhetoric than calling people "losers" or "rapists". There should be some dignity to the office and dignity is something Trump completely lacks. He might have said something that appeals on this one issue but that hardly makes him the guy you should vote for.

Re:Blind squirrel finding an acorn

[konohitowa]

We need someone who will actually try to understand issues before spewing whatever dumb idea jumps first into his mouth.

Crap. Well, that completely ruins any hope for Biden.

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.

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?