Tech giants brace for Trump visa action, Seattle, Redmond top list of cities with the most at stake

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Last week, President Donald Trump's executive order stopped a group of surgeons from coming to work in Seattle hospitals. Now the president appears poised to take action on immigrant workers.

Trump is again taking aim at a mainstay of the American workforce, this time with a draft proposal to potentially overhaul the various visa programs that provide thousands of immigrants legal status to temporarily live and work in the United States. Of particular prominence among the programs in question is the nation's H-1B visa system, a primary source of talent for many of the largest technology companies that annually grants legal work status to 85,000 skilled and educated residents from abroad.

Companies in the Puget Sound region, from Microsoft and Amazon to startups to universities and hospitals, would be hit by a roll-back or reduction of the H-1B system.

News broke last week of Trump's plan to evaluate and possibly issue new executive orders to make the nation's visa programs "more efficient." The move came to light just weeks after the president leveled criticism at what he perceives as bloat within the federal government. The timing of the visa review also corresponds with an executive order to temporarily ban travelers from select countries from entering the United States.

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2017/02/06/as-tech-giants-brace-for-trump-visa-action-seattle.html?ana=e_me_set2&s=newsletter&ed=2017-02-07&u=ColXVN5SPzQtLHFP87ho2w07857290&t=1486493141&j=77315031

[nycbos]

1. There is nothing wrong with the idea of the H1-B system.

There is a shortage of skilled workers. A lot of people who originally come on H1-B visas eventually become permeant residents. They want to make a life for themselves in America. We should encourage that. What I object to is when the H1-B system is abused to bring foreign workers in to US and Americans are forced to train their forging replacements and the jobs end up being outsourced.