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New Senate Bill Would Give US Grads Preference In Receiving H-1B Visas (computerworld.com)
dcblogs quotes a report from Computerworld: A new bill in Congress would give foreign students who graduate from U.S. schools priority in getting an H-1B visa. The legislation also "explicitly prohibits" the replacement of American workers by visa holders. This bill, the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act, was announced Thursday by its co-sponsors, U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), longtime allies on H-1B reform. Grassley is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which gives this bill an immediate big leg up in the legislative process. This legislation would end the annual random distribution, via a lottery, of H-1B visas, and replace it with a system to give priority to certain types of students. Foreign nationals in the best position to get one of the 85,000 H-1B visas issued annually will have earned an advanced degree from a U.S. school, have a well-paying job offer, and have preferred skills. The specific skills weren't identified, but will likely be STEM-related. "Congress created these programs to complement America's high-skilled workforce, not replace it," said Grassley, in a statement. "Unfortunately, some companies are trying to exploit the programs by cutting American workers for cheaper labor."
It's a small start on a long needed road of reform. At least they're having the discussion.
Its for skills that cant be found locally. The latest cutting edge research is done in universities and as the majority of grad students are foreigners if companies want people with reseaerch experience at the cutting edge they need foreign students. Students are getting H1Bs because the US immigration system is so screwed that it has no specific visa for Students who have graduated from US universities to stay and work in US (every other country which has a large education industry has a student work visa post graduation) so they use the H1B which was meant for Models.
Also mostly students are now spending 2-3 years in OPT so by the time they are on H1B they have the skills and the experience.
All this would not be needed if the Comprehensive Immigration Reform under Bush had got passed which had basically said every student graduating in STEM would have a Greencard stapled to their Diploma.
GCs are always better than H1Bs as they have the same freedom to work for anyone and do not depress the market like H1s do.
**Life is too short to be serious**
I vote for Trump because I believed there was about a 30% chance he would actually deliver on his promises to stand up to the corporations in favor of the working class. The odds were, and still are, in favor of him being full of shit on those promises. But that 30% chance is still better than the 0% chance that Hillary would have ever stood up for the working class.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.