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

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?

[MillionthMonkey]

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!

You speak as if he's actually been busy on this for the past few months. While an early draft EO in January mentioned H1-B reform, since then Trump's ADHD has brought all progress to a halt.

There is huge support in Congress for cracking down on H1-B abuse- this is one of those rare issues where which both parties agree. But actually getting something accomplished takes time away from tweeting, golfing, and monitoring Fox and Friends for intelligence updates. In desperation Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) went on twitter himself two weeks ago and begged for Trump to call his office about H1-B reform. One tweet read "I've been waiting for six yrs for a president interested in fixing H1B and that person has finally arrived/DRAIN SWAMP". Six down, four to go!

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.

Told ya so

[Billly Gates]

He only wanted your votes. He hires Mexicans to build his properties and uses shady contractors to cut costs doing so maintaining them.

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?

Wow, once again he goes above and beyond

[TimothyHollins]

Wait, are you telling me that once again Trump *didn't* help his voters in favor of his rich business associates? You know, this together with the gutting of the FCC and the EPA almost, *almost*, makes me think that he's not trying that hard to make America great again.

I know you can't see my face right now, but if you could, it would have a look of surprise.

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: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

[phantomfive]

I'm happy to take a lower salary if it helps people out in the slums of India.

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.

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.