Trump Administration Cracks Down On H-1B Visa Abuse (cnn.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN Money: The Trump administration is cracking down on companies that get visas for foreign workers and farm them out to employers. Some staffing agencies seek hard-to-get H-1B visas for high-skilled workers, only to contract them out to other companies. There's nothing inherently illegal about contracting out visa recipients, but the workers are supposed to maintain a relationship with their employers, among other requirements. In some cases, outsourcing firms flood the system with applicants. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency said in a new policy memo released Thursday it will require more information about H-1B workers' employment to ensure the workers are doing what they were hired for. Companies will have to provide specific work assignments, including dates and locations, to verify the "employer-employee" relationship between the company applying for an H-1B and its visa recipient.

H-1B visas are valid for three years and can be renewed for another three years. The USCIS says it may limit the length of the visa to shorter than three years based the information an employer provides. For example, if an employer can't prove the H-1B holder is "more likely than not" needed for the full three years, the government might issue the visa for fewer than three years. The memo also says the administration wants to prevent employee "benching." That's when firms bring on H-1B visa holders but don't give them work and don't pay them the required wages while they wait for jobs.

Comments

Re:The orange one

[bigwheel]

Exactly. Even the Bushes were vocal opponents of Trump.

The problem isn't a democrat vs republican issue. It is a battle of "deep state" vs an outsider. The outsider must be stopped at all costs. The worst thing that can happen is that the outsider is successful. Every democrat and half of the republicans would rather have the country fail, than to have an outsider succeed.

>> "Told" to hate him? You think there are marching orders for that? >>
It depends on what you call "marching orders". But with 90% of news coverage being negative (citations provided via DuckDuckGo), it is easy to reinforce your hatred, overlook everything else, and discount anything positive as a "far right wacko" news source. Conversely, if you are a Trump supporter, it gets easy to be disgusted with the mainstream media, and discount even the stories that have merit.

Re:The orange one

[Anonymous Coward]

"Told" to hate him? You think there are marching orders for that? All the Republicans I know either hate him or dislike him while grudgingly accepting him. But of course, I've heard a lot on the forums complain that they're all RINOs, including the vast majority of past Republican leadership (even Reagan would be called a RINO these days if he dared to snub Trump).

I'm not sure where the told to hate him thread came from, but anyway, no one needed to tell me to hate Donald Trump. I did not hate Mitt Romney, nor John McCain, nor either Bush. I thought the second Bush used the attack as a poorly thought out excuse to invade Iraq, and I most certainly didn't want him reelected to a second term, though I briefly considered voting for him the first term. Either way, I sort of understood it, partially because I believe Saddam did try to go after his dad.

John McCain's biggest issue was he wasn't really that much of a maverick, though he was certainly better than some. The biggest thing I didn't like about him was Sarah Palin. Sorry, she was just not qualified.

Donald Trump is also not qualified, and appears to not really be making any effort to change that. That is not why I hate him though. I hate him for blowing through the democratic norms that keep our democracy solid. He attacks everything and everyone that he think has or might in the future attack him, regardless of the danger to our democracy.

Fake news is a real thing, but by doing his best to gas light everyone into not even knowing what truth is anymore, and by discrediting all news sources that are not Trump propaganda, he damages our democracies in ways that are incalculable.

The Russian attempts to change the outcome of the election were horrible. They were a declaration of a new type of war that is only beginning. As near as I can tell Putin hated Hillary for calling him what he was and he liked Trump for being the best available tool to cause his enemies to self destruct from within. I kind of expect Putin to do it. I do not approve of it and believe for the good of the world he should stop, but you cannot expect your enemies to care about such things.

The reason I truly loath Trump and will never forgive him for his actions, is we were attacked, our democracy took some serious blows, and the guy who ended up in charge has basically done nothing. Actually it is worse than that. His attacks on the judiciary, the FBI, the legitimate press, and truth itself are the best ally Putin could ask for and none of that mentions all the damage he is doing elsewhere.

I hope he is doing nothing purely out of self interest. It fits the Trump profile. The only other alternative is even worse. I just hope our democracy doesn't take so much damage that its self correcting abilities are compromised. Sure maybe someone better will get in next time, but will it be because of a rational understanding if his or her skill set or because they hate Trump and anyone is better than trump?

I believe that kind of thing is partly how we got Trump in the first place, though I'd argue that people had a lot of help hating Hillary.

Trump once asked what do you have to lose? I think we are seeing the answer to that now, though the bill may fall heaviest on the next generation.