Trump says he wants skilled immigrants. He's about to stop 70,000 from working.

[RandySF]

President Donald Trump insists he wants to attract high-skilled legal immigrants, even while pushing for a wall on the southern border - but his administration is moving to deprive thousands of highly trained immigrants of the right to work.

The argument for throwing these well-educated newcomers - holders of H-4 visas - out of the workforce is that it would open jobs for unemployed and underemployed U.S. citizens.

It's a lousy rationale. Our research shows that this proposal would not create a single net job, and it would also cost the U.S. economy - and taxpayers - billions of dollars a year in lost revenue and reduced economic growth. It will also likely force immigrants - actively encouraged, up to now, to move here -- to uproot themselves.

Congress created the H-1B visa program in 1990 to attract more high-skilled immigrants into the country. Companies were having trouble filling jobs in technical occupations like systems engineers and software developers, occupation that then (and now) had low unemployment rates. Turning to foreign-born workers is an effective way to plug this hole. Trained, experienced foreign workers are also much more likely to start new businesses, creating new jobs in the process.

Since a good proportion of H-1B workers happen to be married, Congress created an H-4 visa for their spouses. At its inception, the law prohibited H-4 visa holders from working, but the work exclusion came to be a problem. Most spouses of H-1B visa holders also tend to have substantial technical skills as well, and find coming to the United States without being able to pursue a career a considerable sacrifice. Their inability to work was making it more difficult to attract H-1B visa holders.



https://www.nj.com/opinion/2019/03/trump-says-he-wants-skilled-immigrants-hes-about-to-stop-70000-from-working.html?utm_content=nj_twitter_njpolitics&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=njpolitics_sf&utm_source=twitter

[sandensea]

1. His poorly-educated base needed a little red meat, apparently

And what better way than to sock it to immigrant professionals - the economy be damned.

[mr_lebowski]

2. There is needed reform that would actually be very helpful

that everyone EXCEPT asshole greedy corps would support.

Primarily what these jerks do is advertise high-level positions requiring like masters and 15 year exp ... at Minimum Wage. Then of course nobody in the US takes them, and so they are allowed to 'look elsewhere'. And then there's no requirement that they pay the H1 person ... what they were advertising the position at when seeking US persons!

Then the company becomes the 'sponsor' of the employee, which means THEY OWN YOU unless you wanna go back to where you came. They can even fire you, and NOT release your sponsorship for you to find another job.

It's a terrible system ... THAT is what needs FIXED more than anything.

But of course Trumps not going to do anything sensible, esp. not if Corporate America won't make more money off it.