Microsoft's H-1B Workers Cited In Motion That Successfully Blocked Trump's Travel Ban (geekwire.com)

"President Trump's travel ban is on hold," reports WGN. "A federal judge in Seattle blocked the executive order banning travelers from seven predominately Muslim countries." But Slashdot reader theodp noticed that the judge's temporary restraining order might've been responding to something specific: the motion argued Trump's executive order had been harmful because it impacted major tech companies in the state of Washington, including Microsoft. From the motion: Washington's technology industry relies heavily on the H-1B visa program. Nationwide, Washington ranks ninth in the number of applications for high-tech visas. Microsoft, which is headquartered in Washington, employs nearly 5,000 people through the program. Other Washington companies, including Amazon, Expedia, and Starbucks, employ thousands of H-1B visa holders. Loss of highly skilled workers puts Washington companies at a competitive disadvantage with global competitors.
It was in response to the motion from Washington that the judge ultimately ruled that "the States have met their burden of demonstrating that they face immediate and irreparable injury as a result of signing and implementation of the Executive Order," citing its harm on the state's public universities -- and on its tax base. And Attorney General Bob Ferguson told GeekWire that he gave some credit for the judge's ruling to the declarations of support filed by Amazon and Expedia which specifically say that "Microsoft's U.S. workforce is heavily dependent on immigrants and guest workers. At least 76 employees at Microsoft are citizens of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, or Yemen and hold U.S. temporary work visas."

Comments

Re:Ban temporary lifted for the wrong reasons

[DNS-and-BIND]

Two Iraqi men in their 20s have been convicted of a bloody sex crime in Colorado that left the victim, a woman in her 50s, in need of immediate surgery and a colostomy bag. Three other Iraqi men, also in their 20s,were convicted on lesser charges as accessories.

Four points set this case apart. First, there is its brutality: Law enforcement officers describe the July 2012 assault as "rare" and "horrific" and "one of the worst in Colorado history." Second, all of these men once assisted U.S. military forces in Iraq as informants and interpreters. Third, every one of them received permanent residency status in the U.S., due in part to efforts made by U.S. military members on their behalf. Fourth, this extraordinary case and the ties that bind it to the U.S. military and the war in Iraq have received little coverage.

Link to full story.

Have we ever considered it's a BAD thing to steal all these talented people from their own societies and hog them all for ourselves? America, already bursting with money that it just wastes, gets richer while the developing world is robbed of the talented people that they so badly need. Imagine 10,000 enterprising, able people suddenly relocated back to their home countries where they will open businesses, employ their countrymen, and add to their own culture's wealth instead of an imperialist power's. Now imagine the Americans that have to fill the gap - suddenly the employers don't hold all the cards any more and it's a seller's market. Employee abuses go down and worker salaries go up. It's win-win...for everyone but the corporations.

Re: Judge should learn the law

[thesupraman]

I am pretty sure the judge is ruling in the case of people who holds valid is visas of one form or another.
Certainly some forms of visa remove the holder from the classification of alien used here.
Of course that doesn't mean he doesn't have the right.. Just that what you wrote is not enjoying in all these cases.
The bigger picture here though.. Is he is doing much what he claimed he would do before an election.
I suspect that is scaring the hell out of the career politicians and public servants.
It will be interesting to see how long it continues.. The is going to be an internal power struggle within the 'public service'..
About damn time.

Re:Taces are not immediate and irrepairable

[BBCWatcher]

Washington State has a sales tax. If an individual cannot enter the United States, that individual buy a pair of sneakers in Washington State, and the state is nearly instantaneously deprived of sales tax revenue. Retailers in Washington must file sales tax returns, and pay sales tax, as frequently as once per month. The State of Washington has already lost some sales tax revenue from the end of January, 2017, that would be owed in about 10 days (mid-February, 2017).

Washington's Solicitor General made a 100% factually correct argument about one aspect of the harm to the State, and the judge agreed.

Re:Expand the H-1B beyond the Tech Industry . . .

[drinkypoo]

the EO has lead to some problems, causing doctors shortages in some areas of the US.

Actually, the AMA has caused shortages of doctors in all areas of the US. Let's worry about our home-grown terrorists!

Re:Expand the H-1B beyond the Tech Industry . . .

[Mashiki]

If you were a college-educated, white, unemployed Canadian, just laid off from a corporate job, are you even willing to pick pumpkins, sort potatoes, pick strawberries, or hand-weed fields (yes we do hand weed 130 acres at a time sometimes), for any wage, even with room and board? From what I've seen first-hand, the answer is no, generally.

When I was a kid, going back over 30 years ago. Picking fruit, veggies, and so on were done by kids, and even adults wanting to make a bit of money. It was also the first indicator of what was happening, it wasn't that people didn't want to do it. Hell I made my money to goto university after I finished my apprenticeship. I know quite a few people in the "over 35 age bracket" who did the same thing. It was the government allowing corporate farms to import the labor and pay pennies per hour(pennies per bushel), for what was picked that stopped the people in Canada from doing the work. The first few years I had started doing it, I was making just shy of $9/hr, picking tobacco, strawberries, blueberries, rock picking and so on. The min. wage was $5.85/hr Within 4 years, that price had dropped to $1.60/hr. No one is going to work at a depressed wage like that.

So yes, you're wrong. There are plenty of people out there who'd do the work. Most people however will not work for what they pay now, which is like $4/bushel, around $2.80/hr(which is the average right now here in the SWON). Or $15/20kg of rocks from field clearing.