This Year's H-1B Visa Applications Look A Lot Like Last Year's (newsweek.com)

"This year's round of H-1B visa program applications was scheduled to launch Monday, and it was largely absent of President Donald Trump's proposed policy changes," writes Newsweek. An anonymous reader quotes their report: The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services last updated its online page dedicated to the program, which granted visas to skilled foreign workers, Wednesday with the rules mostly similar to those of last year and quotas remaining the same. These requirements were set to launch despite Trump's vow to reform the program on the grounds that companies exploited it to fill jobs once held by U.S. citizens who earned higher wages.

An alleged draft of an executive order was leaked last month and widely circulated, raising fears that the administration was preparing to gut the program. These measures were never announced. "There was a window in which the White House could have made serious reforms," Russ Harrison, head of government relations for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA, told The Wall Street Journal. "For whatever reason, they decided not to take it."

Comments

Sell out

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine that, trump sold out his voters.

Re: Sell out

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not even 100 days yet. He's already accomplished more than I expected from a full 4 years of Jeb. And we don't have a hot war with Russia like we would have had with Hillary. Things are great.

Re: Sell out

[fluffernutter]

You know 'golf' and 'accomplishment' are not synonyms, right?

Re: Sell out

[hairyfeet]

You DO know there is a REASON why there is an electoral college, yes? That it was designed for precisely this purpose where the majority of states say "we do not want this person" only for the two most populated states to say "tough shit we don't care what you think" and getting to rule in perpetuity?

Whether you like it or not when HRC announced her candidacy her approval rating? 15%. After a year and a half of the media throwing themselves at her feet, actually running their stories by her for her approval AND if that wasn't enough the DNC actually rigging the primary in her favor? After all of that and hundreds of millions spent trying to sell her her approval rating was....14%.

Lets face it Hillary Clinton was a lying backstabbing arrogant money grubbing influence peddling insider that could have been beaten by the corpse of Richard Nixon, she was THAT hated by the majority of the country. There was literally not a worse possible candidate that could have been chosen by the insiders and her "Its her turn" campaign slogan just showed how fucking arrogant she was and sealed the deal. ironically it was Hillary herself that told the media to push Trump as he was a "pied piper candidate" that, again because she was so fucking arrogant, she thought she could easily defeat by dividing the country up into nice neat little demographics and using some pandering so obvious Ray Charles could see through it basically buy votes. Her "basket of deplorables" was her final Willie Horton that insured she would lose, NY and CA would of course give her the popular vote because....well they would vote for a crackhead for POTUS if they had a D after their name which again shows EXACTLY why we cannot go by the "popular vote" because it would allow 2 states to dictate to the other 48 who was in the White House no matter what the 48 thought.

Why is this bad?

[SuperKendall]

The story is framed as bad but isn't it better that they take some time to craft a reasonable update to the policy? Trump has been president just a bit over two months now!

Re:Why is this bad?

[Medinole]

Trump announced his presidential campaign in June of 2015 and came into office with the established policy of putting American workers first. He and his team have had over a year to "craft a reasonable update to the policy". Trump was elected on the promise that he would get to work for America on day one, not get elected then figure out how things work. The administration should have started action on H1B in January.

Re:Why is this bad?

[Gravis Zero]

A reasonable update to the policy would be something very simple like requiring a minimum wage of H1-B workers to be $150K (adjusted for inflation). It's very simple because doesn't take much to deal a fatal blow to abuse while keeping it available for the people that it was originally intended to help bring into the country.

Everything we've seen so far from the Mango in Chief has only benefitted businesses, the wealthy and bigots at the expense of everyone and everything else.

Re: Why is this bad?

[Medinole]

Please. I didn't say legislate. This is about having a policy which can be implemented by Congress. The Congress which is controlled by Republicans in the House and Senate. The Republicans who are led by Trump. Any major legislation which gets passed will be, at a minimum, strongly influenced by the President.

Re:Why is this bad?

[l0n3s0m3phr34k]

I totally agree. That's why I think all the various "scandals" are taking his administration by surprise. In the business world, you have to fuck up Enron or Madoff level before anyone really will say or do much about it. The US federal government is an entirely different game, one that he's trying to run like one of his businesses that have virtually no "over-site", no premade investigative bodies, no need to justify anything money related, and no one is really watching who you talk to or where you do business unless you really go to extremes. He's used to operating in the semi-dark, only beholden to himself and whomever his shareholders might be. Shell companies, business with Russia, none of that mattered before he stepped into the biggest spotlight on the planet, the US Presidency.

Re:#MAGA

[epyT-R]

No. I don't want to keep that in mind. Indians should fix India. I see little reason to give a damn that Indians can't be bothered to take a shot at a first rate society while they leech ours, driving down our standard of living.

The program is repeatedly lobbied for by these companies. It needs to go. That, or these companies should relocate to Mumbai and America should embargo their goods/services and release their patents to the public so that new startups can fill the void. Infosys and friends can see how well SaaS and other insanely overpriced abstract IT rubbish sell to people who can't keep the lights on and who think proper sanitation is shitting in fields and on beaches.

Re:So now Trump is to blame for applications

[darthsilun]

Oh that patronizing response again. I don't remember your side "getting over it" when you were the losers. We got to look at your "Impeach Obama" bumper stickers and the rest of your crap for eight years.

Guess what. We're not going away. So you can just Shut The Fuck Up with your "get over it" crap. We're totally going to be in your fucking face for the next 45 months. Get used to it.

Re:Told ya so

[drinkypoo]

Joke is on you for thinking he would be different. You can't be pro automation and pro free market and libertarian and cry wahaha it's not fair ai have to compete too?

Most Trump voters are none of those things, although most of them they like to claim that they are in favor of a free market. In reality, they want a market which is manipulated in their favor, and the next guy can go fuck himself. Trump voters could not possibly be farther from supporting the free market.

Re:Thats the free market.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Everybody knows it is not about "better" candidates, it is about "cheaper" candidates. You are nothing but an Infosys, TCS, [fill in any staffing agency here] shill.

STFU

Re:Told ya so

[Billly Gates]

They support the free market unless it applies to them. They want the government to bud out and have open competition and less regulation ... Except at the factory they work at.

But my post was referring to slashdotters who say vote for Trump as Clinton is not on your side on with h1b1 visas. Then in the next story the same posters go on how the free market dictates no increase in minimum wages and that automation increases jobs

Re:Thats the free market.....

[Gravis Zero]

Why do slashdotters hate government clampdowns on freedoms except when it comes to H1B visas? I fucking hate the hypocrisy of it all.

Unrestrained capitalism is frankly an insane idea. What businesses are allowed to do should be well regulated to prevent disastrous outcomes like rivers catching fire. What people want is the government to keep them safe from corporations that frankly wouldn't mind if you died suffering as a direct result of their actions. What people don't want is the government interfering with the civil liberties of individuals.

If you have a problem with H1B tech workers then make yourself a better candidate, FFS.

If you bring the individual worker having to compete on a global scale to it's logical conclusion, it means that Americans have accept the lowest standard of living of any country. That doesn't seem like a good thing for anyone but the rich.

Re:#MAGA

[LifesABeach]

So it's OK for dad to lie to Americans? And it's OK for dad's supervisors lie to Americans? Your dad isn't alone in taking my wrath. Our pinko and chief has said, "America First." H1B visas put America NOT first. I've worked with Ginness's, they don't need to be "trained" to do their job. But for some magical reason, Disney's mickey mouse managers, and SoCal-Eddy's-Son have to train H1B visa holders, then the trainers are fired/lay-off/what-ever.

Re:#MAGA

[whoever57]

Imagine this: you live in the slums in Mumbai. Your father goes thru trash every day, hoping to find tin cans to sell, and your mother tries to sell home-made bread on the market to feed all of your 6 brothers and sisters. Now you get the opportunity to get a three year degree in software engineering and go to the U.S. to work for a tech company. You have no clue about all the politics surrounding H1-B in the U.S., and you don't know that you will be grossly underpaid comparing to your American peers.

Bullshit!!!!!

You haven't actually talked to those Indians about their backgrounds.

All those H1B Indians come from wealthy Indian families. Those dirt poor Indians simply don't have the opportunity to get a degree and get to the USA.

Re:#WILLSAYIMADEITUPHAHATRAP

[Hognoxious]

they really are just like everyone else.

I haven't heard of French parents scaling the walls of a school to help their kids cheat in exams.

That's not who's getting H1-Bs

[rsilvergun]

they're the Indian middle class. I don't know why it's so hard for Americans to understand that India has a middle class. They're a country of over a billion people.

These aren't refugees from poverty, they're mostly folks coming over here to take advantage of the currency differences with the plan to go back home with fat stacks of cash. A lot don't because they have kids, they kids put down roots and they stay around. But they're not escaping poverty. If you want those guys than ban the Indians are let the Syrians in. They're not just escaping poverty, they're escaping genocide.

That's the trouble

[rsilvergun]

people want the government to keep _them_ safe. Them. No the other guy. The other guy just needs to work harder and stop leaching off them.

The best quote I've heard in years came from a CNN pundit calling Rick Santorum to task over his opposition to Medicaid for the poor. She said Nobody's a Conservative when it comes to their family. She was right, too.