back to article Trump pushes anti-immigrant policy into Biden term with extended freeze on H-1B and other work visas

President Trump has thrown his anti-immigrant policies into the incoming Biden administration's lap, extending a ban on work visas until March 31. In a presidential proclamation issued on the last day of 2020, Trump claimed that allowing immigrants into the United States represented a threat to the country’s economic stability …

  1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    On a constituional point of procedure

    Did he preface the executive order with "no take-backs" ?

  2. Daedalus

    Boo hoo

    Have the Reg reporters not been paying attention? Companies have abused the H1B system to replace US workers with cheap foreign labour. The new administration will no doubt restore the status quo ante on general principle. Complaints of "we can't find US talent" have to be taken with a large pinch of salt. They really mean "cheap talent" or even "talent that is not satisfying our deliberately impossible requirements". I remember when every Indian consultancy advertised CMM Level 5 compliance. Yeah right. So what do you get hiring them? You get what you get by paying peanuts.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What's happening January 15th?

    Distraction again I think, a court will simply strike it down yet again.

    I notice that a lot of Trump's recent things revolve around January 15th. For example, the military was supposed to withdraw from Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia to be completed by January 15th. Now he's trying to get the House certification of Biden's win delayed by 10 days (i.e.to just after January 15th).

    I also notice the open letter from Ashton Carter, Dick Cheney, William Cohen, Mark Esper, Robert Gates, Chuck Hagel, James Mattis, Leon Panetta, William Perry and Donald Rumsfeld:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/10-former-defense-secretaries-military-peaceful-transfer-of-power/2021/01/03/2a23d52e-4c4d-11eb-a9f4-0e668b9772ba_story.html

    They remind the military that they cannot obey illegal orders as a matter of law. Which is an odd thing to say right now, don't you think? These are all former defense secretaries, which means they're getting security briefings on what Trump is doing to the military right now. Lots of staunch Republicans among them too. If they chose to say that at this time, then there is a reason that they known but is not being disclosed to us yet.

    Likewise Republicans added wording to the defense spending bill to stop Trump doing the withdrawal of troops. Trump vetoed it, and the House overruled him. Given Republicans turned a blind eye as troops fled Syria under fire, due to Trump orders, as Russians took over their bases.... you can wonder what briefing they've had that is not yet public.

    -------------

    A typical Trump-Putin linkage here:

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55196130

    "US President Donald Trump has ordered the withdrawal of nearly all US troops from Somalia by 15 January, the Pentagon has said."

    Which is related to Putin's expansion in Somalia:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/28/world/africa/russia-africa-troops.html

    "Russian officials are eyeing the port of Berbera as a location for their base on the coast of Somaliland, a self-declared state within Somalia on the Gulf of Aden, according to Defense Department officials. Both China and the United States, with military bases in Djibouti, share the same coastline as the potential Russian port."

    i.e. Putin's doing a [Transdniestria] to Somalia.

    ----------

    So what's happening January 15th?

    Something involving the US military domestically and Putin abroad?

    It seems to me, you should impeach him again for this latest attempt to corrupt the elections. Have the impeachment done and ready before January 15th. You might be tempted to say "well what can he do in 5 days"? Well his plans are enough to cause Defense Secretaries to remind the military of its legal duties!

  4. big_D Silver badge

    Given...

    How the US is (not) dealing with COVID, who in their right mind would want to go there anyway at the moment?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    particularly the H-1B work visa frequently used by the tech industry...

    particularly the H-1B work visa frequently ABused by the tech industry....

    Fixed it for ya!

  6. kezersoze

    Full rewrite of H1B is needed

    Typical Trump, all grandstanding and no long term fixes. He's had 4 years to rewrite the rules for H1B workers and all he's done is push executive orders. A full rewrite of the program is in order to fix the low base salary that allows companies to outsource to cheap foreign workers. Set the base salary of a H1B worker to the median salary of the job they are taking and companies would not outsource so readily. This should have broad bipartisan support as both Dems and Repubs have expressed displeasure with the current system

    1. Darth.0

      Re: Full rewrite of H1B is needed

      That's the thing about Trump and Trumpism, it's all zero sum. He is the pinnacle of what started back in the 90s with the GOP. Make everyone else a bad guy, dig your heals in and don't compromise. They don't see a common good, it's only what's good for them.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Full rewrite of H1B is needed

        This.

        I view him as the ultimate in negative campaigning... what if a person was 100% negative campaigning and 0% positive ideas.

        What would happen if they got elected? Well, they'd attack their own government for not doing the thing they cannot deliver as government because attacking is all they know.

        How to achieve X when you have zero ideas on how to deliver X? Who can you attack when its you that has to figure out how to achieve X??

        Normally it wouldn't matter, it would be zero sum, but there are all these bad actors, domestic and foreign, waiting to take advantage of such a void... " I can deliver X if only you give me Y" making it negative sum.

        He really believed that somehow selling out the USA was good for the USA?

        He really believed that asset stripping America was somehow good for America?

        How can you be such a f*ing moron.

      2. spoofles

        Re: Full rewrite of H1B is needed

        No, you must be thinking about Pelosi.

    2. elip

      Re: Full rewrite of H1B is needed

      Sure, but previous presidents have had 30 years to do something, *literally anything* to combat the abuse, and Trump has so far been the only president to utter the word H1B. So....maybe begrudgingly give credit where credit is due?

    3. spoofles

      Re: Full rewrite of H1B is needed

      The trouble is there is no enforcement of the requirement that corporations attempt to find a citizen before bringing in H1B labor like other countries require. The way it really works is that the head shops exhaust the visa pool in the first hour of the new year and then sell the visa to the company that wants access to incompetent but cheap exploitable labor. What should be done is to strip all tax incentives for H1B labor and force corporations to pay the same rate as they would a citizen worker and of course have them truly exhaust all possibilities of hiring a citizen and document the attempts before calling the head shops.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Full rewrite of H1B is needed

        "The way it really works is that the head shops exhaust the visa pool in the first hour of the new year and then sell the visa to the company"

        Ah, unregulated capitalism. Don't you just love it?

        The obvious solution is to ban the middlemen from taking all the visas and being allowed to "sell" them on. Limit the usage to the applicant company only. No shell companies.

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