SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
For the new political order taking shape in Washington, however, H-1Bs aren't quite welcome. Amid promises of sweeping changes to immigration policy, President-elect Donald Trump and his choice for attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), have tabbed the program for a major overhaul, and might even scrap it altogether. In the House, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is on the same wavelength.
Trump has described H-1Bs as a "cheap labor program" subject to "widespread, rampant" abuse. Sessions co-sponsored legislation last year with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) to effectively gut the program; Issa, a congressman with Trump's ear, released a statement Wednesday saying he was reintroducing similar legislation called the Protect and Grow American Jobs Act.
Sessions and Issa's legislation primarily targets large outsourcing companies, such as Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services, that receive the vast majority of H-1B visas and use them to deploy workers to American companies seeking to cut costs. In 2015, the top 10 recipients of H-1B visas were outsourcing firms. As recently as 2013, the Justice Department, which Sessions stands to take over, settled with Infosys for $34 million in a visa fraud case.
If they were smart they'd change the program to maximize brain-drain from other countries by making H-1B a fast-track to citizenship instead of the 6+ year wait for a green-card that it now is. Bring in the best of them rather than the cheapest of them and let them compete on equal footing rather than the indentured servitude of the current H-1B program.
(Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Wednesday January 11 2017, @01:16AM
I'd say let's go full-on Libertarian anti-regulation and just let anyone, from anywhere, move into the country and do whatever job they can find.
Or, alternately, go full-on protectionist and make the available options a) hire local or b) hire an immigrant once they've emigrated, have legal permanent residency, and are legal. If you can't find local talent to do the job you obviously need to pay more, or spend money to train someone.
It's the grey area that's killing us.
(Score: 1) by YeaWhatevs on Wednesday January 11 2017, @02:55AM
It's not about ideological positions, what people want is maximized sustainable freedom. This means the positions are whatever maximizes it today, and subject to change of rules whenever we see fit. This is especially fluid on subjects like regulation and immigration where conditions not specific rules decide which policies are the right ones today.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 11 2017, @04:15PM
Then people from polluted deregulated countries would come to temporarily work in the high-wage "modernized" countries, taking jobs away from those who don't want to live in polluted deregulated countries. Some people will put up with 3-eyed children to have the latest toys, and that's who you would then be competing against.