Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses... but not your H-1B geeks, L-1 staffers nor J-1 students
- Reference: 1592877486
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/06/23/white_house_visa_freeze/
- Source link:
The White House announced the move late Monday afternoon, following days of media speculation and a Sunday admission from the President himself that an executive order was imminent.
The Trump administration said the [1]latest order , an extension of a similar proclamation issued [2]in April , will largely block companies in the US from applying for H-1B visas for techies and other skilled employees, L-1s for managers and skilled staff transferring from overseas to America, H-2Bs for casual foreign workers, and J-1 academic visas, extending restrictions already in place.
There are some notable exceptions to the visa freeze. The order will not apply to any workers already in the country under those types of visas, or those outside with valid paperwork already in place.
Additional exceptions will be made for those who are the spouse or child of a US citizen, those whose work is deemed "essential to the US food supply chain," and "any alien whose entry would be in the national interest as determined by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Homeland Security, or their respective designees."
We take that last part to mean your CEO will have to call in a favor.
Green card applications on hold from the previous executive order will also be paused to the end of the year.
In extending that April order, Trump continues to reason that, with so many out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic smashing the economy, Americans should be given first crack at job openings.
Tech outfits sue Uncle Sam over 'unlawful' H-1B admission charges totaling $350m over six years [3]READ MORE
"The entry of additional workers through the H-1B, H-2B, J, and L nonimmigrant visa programs, therefore, presents a significant threat to employment opportunities for Americans affected by the extraordinary economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 outbreak," the latest order reads.
It is unclear, however, how many unemployed Americans will be willing (H-2B covers temporary, seasonal labor) and/or qualified (H1-B is earmarked for specialized skilled roles) to do those jobs under the wages and demands being offered by employers today.
The White House reckoned that since the pandemic began, 20 million of those who lost their jobs were "in key industries where employers are currently requesting H-1B and L workers to fill positions," though that is a rather sweeping generalization. (Though, yeah, we know about [4]H-1B fraud ; it's a problem.)
The Trump administration's policies haven't been too popular in Silicon Valley, where 40 per cent of workers said [5]back in 2019 they had been directly, negatively impacted in their work by the Trump administration's (even looser at the time) restrictions on H-1B hiring.
Designed to provide companies a way to bring in workers with highly technical skillsets, H-1B visas have been used in Silicon Valley to fill engineering departments with top international talent, boosting America's brains. There's also the argument that the US economy and its success is built on immigrants.
At the same time, it has been found that some organizations, [6]particularly those who provide temp-work and short-term service contracts, were abusing the system to fill their ranks with low-cost workers who were beholden to their bosses to maintain their US residency. ®
Sponsored: [7]Free Hands-on Training: Kubernetes in Google Cloud
[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-suspending-entry-aliens-present-risk-u-s-labor-market-following-coronavirus-outbreak/
[2] https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-suspending-entry-immigrants-present-risk-u-s-labor-market-economic-recovery-following-covid-19-outbreak/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2020/01/30/tech_companies_sue_uscis/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2019/09/24/ceo_jailed_visa_faud/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2019/01/10/us_visa_restrictions/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2019/08/28/web_yoga_h1b_visa_fraud/
[7] https://go.theregister.com/tl/1956/-9042/free-hands-on-training-kubernetes-in-google-cloud?td=wptl1956
H-1B visas [ ... ] Silicon Valley to fill engineering departments with top international talent ...
I don't know about the top talent part, but I do know they are willing to work for 35% of market prevailing wages.
I don't like Trump a bit, but Silicon Valley has been abusing the H-1B visa program for far too long, with enthusiastic Democratic [ neo-liberal economics ] support.
This is long overdue.
And now get ready for a loud wailing sound -- but we can't find enough qua-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-lified people! -- coming out of Redmond WA and certain specific ZIP codes around SF Bay.
To be followed by an a cappella chorus of economists explaining that the H-1B visa program has no effect on wage suppression or unemployment. Quite the opposite. The less you pay an H-1B, because they are de facto slaves with no wage arbitration power, the more the locals' wages will be rising. No-one ever explains how that's supposed to work, exactly.
Yeah, well, why don't you hire the locals for a change. Imagine that.
Re: H-1B visas [*] Silicon Valley to fill engineering departments with top intl talent
"willing to work for 35% of market prevailing wages."
I'm not 100% convinced of the 35%, but it is already pretty much well known that people brought in under H-1B (or similar) visas might be willing to accept positions at a lower wage, in exchange for being brought in under such a visa (it's like competition, right?).
Seriously, though, if the USA has an unusually high unemployment rate, for whatever reason, importing more people to do work (potentially at a lower wage) is NOT helping...
Question: which candidates are supported by Siicon Valley mega-corps, the same ones who've allegedly colluded with one another to 'not recruit one another's employees' to keep overall wages low? (I know there was an El Reg article about this a few years ago) What is THEIR standing on H-1B (and other) work visas?
Re: H-1B visas [*] Silicon Valley to fill engineering departments with top intl talent
> people brought in under H-1B (or similar) visas might be willing to accept positions at a lower wage
It's not a matter of free choice and/or wage bargaining. They simply have no choice. They are offered a given salary - no negotiation - for the option of living - with 4 roommates in a 1-bedroom apartment - somewhere close to a US-101 merge ramp. That's the deal. They can't switch jobs easily - the new employer must be willing to sponsor the H-1B visa transfer. If they get laid off, they have 60 days to find another employer who is willing to sponsor a H-1B visa transfer. Or it's back to wherever they came from.
The ticket is the promise of a green card sponsorship at some point in the future.
Qualifications have nothing to do with it. It's all about money and salary paid. The myth that Americans are less qualified than their H-1B counterparts, or that importing H-1B's is a market-driven necessity, is just that: a manufactured myth.
> I'm not 100% convinced of the 35% [ ... ]
I regularly get job alerts for openings advertising pay rates that are 35% of the prevailing market rate for that particular set of qualifications and seniority. The only saving grace is that some of these delusional job ads stay unfilled for 9 - 10 months, often more. Not all, though. The target audience for these jobs is obvious. I don't want to give concrete examples because I want to remain relatively anonymous.
Re: H-1B visas [ ... ]
I'm not a fan of the H-1B program. Rather than tie them to specific jobs (which makes the employee basically a serf of the employer), analyze the job market and decide that the U.S. needs an additional 5,000 storage admins, 1000 software architects, 2000 semiconductor engineers, etc, and then let people in with H-1B visas to pursue those jobs. So the H-1B resides with the worker, NOT the employer. DON'T force employees into employment with a single firm that can then use that leverage to force them to take sub-standard pay and working conditions, and you can "F off back home" if you don't like what you are being offered.
Also, don't allow H-1Bs to replace currently employed U.S. workers, as you have seen in some of these IT outsourcing deals where H-1Bs are brought in and the the U.S. workers are forced to train them as replacements, and then shoved out the door.
L-1
I can understand the motivation for stopping some of these visa types, but stopping L-1 would surely defeat the purpose? That's when you want to transfer parts of a company into the US. For example, when a company I worked for was bought out the team moved on L-1 visas. I imagine this would put a barrier on US companies taking over foreign startups if they can't transfer the product development to the US.