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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday June 24 2020, @02:02AM   Printer-friendly
from the what-about-yellow-cards dept.

Trump Freezes Green Cards, Many Work Visas Until End Of Year:

President Trump on Monday extended a freeze on green cards for new immigrants and signed an executive order to suspend new H-1B, L-1, J and other temporary work visas for skilled workers, managers and au pairs through the end of the year.

The goal of the move is to protect 525,000 jobs as part of the White House response to job losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic, said a senior administration official, who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity. NPR first reported the impending order on Saturday.

"Americans have been hurt through no fault of their own due to the coronavirus," the official said. "And the president is prioritizing getting them back into the labor supply and getting them to work and standing on their own two feet again."

[...] But other workers will also be affected, including foreign au pairs who provide child care. Professors and scholars are not to be included in the order, the official said. There will be a provision to request exemptions. The order is not expected to affect immigrants and visa holders already in the United States.

[...] The order did not apply to H-2A agriculture workers, who Trump says are necessary to ensure grocery store shelves remain stocked with fruits and vegetables. Health care workers involved in treating coronavirus patients will also be exempt.

Also at CNET, NYTimes, WSJ


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Arik on Wednesday June 24 2020, @04:10AM (10 children)

    by Arik (4543) on Wednesday June 24 2020, @04:10AM (#1011858) Journal
    "H-1B is fraud fodder"

    It may well be, but there's a bigger problem.

    The reason companies like H-1Bs is that they're captive laborers. They don't get to negotiate, they don't get to accept a better job, they either do exactly as they are told or they get deported.

    This shouldn't be tolerated, not only because it takes jobs away from Americans, but because we do not permit involuntary servitude within our borders.

    If these H-1Bs are truly needed, then give them a proper green card.

    Either way, H-1B should be ended, permanently.
    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @05:15AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @05:15AM (#1011873)

    Do you actually even know the conditions for H1B? The IT companies are misusing them, but there are other people who could use H1B properly.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @06:19AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @06:19AM (#1011884)

      Do *you* know the conditions? Have you ever wondered why there's entry level positions that require years of experience as well as experience with various industry-only tools and technologies, yet still pay entry level salaries? It's somewhat of a nonstarter. And that's intentional.

      "We tried and advertised. Nope - we definitely can't fill this job."

      This is the problem about rules and regulations that make otherwise bad ideas sound okay. People (and companies) will just find a way to skirt the rules, getting to embrace that bad sounding idea without those pesky rules.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @03:10PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @03:10PM (#1011991)

      There is no proper use for a visa that's tied to a specific employer with no ability to change jobs without having to leave the country. It's an inherently abusive position to be in where the worker effectively has to take the conditions the employer is offering and in many cases are under immense pressure to not use the benefits given.

      Yes, there are situations where there's a legitimate need to bring in employees from out of the country, but the program itself is deeply problematic even if they do manage to crack down on the various bad actors, you'd still be left with employees that effectively have no rights as they can't enforce the rights they have without risking deportation.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2020, @02:10AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2020, @02:10AM (#1012260)

        I used to work for a small company where the owner did exploit people on the H-1 B Visas. There was this one very qualified person from another country that had her Master's in Accounting with many years of experience, English was like her fifth language and within a couple months she spoke it insanely well (better than many natives I would say), and pretty much everyone agreed she was by far the most intelligent person among us (I, for one, speak two other languages fluidly but not proficiently). She was intelligent in many many subjects. But she pretty much got paid minimum wage, worked long hours, no benefits, and didn't get paid overtime rates when she worked overtime (well, he didn't pay anyone overtime rates when they worked overtime).

        She eventually ended up going back to her own country (slightly after I left the company) and probably went back to the accounting firm she used to work for before coming to the U.S on the visa. The owner just got someone else from another country to abuse after and the cycle repeats itself over and over. Most everyone just goes back to their own country though at least one person did manage to eventually get his green card(?) after many years of being in the states (prior to me working for the company) and ended up leaving the company, going to school, and doing Lyft full time until he eventually got a better job (I'm sure he still goes to school as well but I haven't really kept up with him). He was on his way out of the company just as I was starting. The owner quite literally yelled at this person very loudly for doing basically nothing wrong at times. I suppose this person figured Lyft was better than working for my prior employer and left the company to do Lyft as soon as he was legally able to work in the U.S.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @10:12AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @10:12AM (#1011914)

    This goes well beyond H-1B visas. So much of academia is built on exploitation, including the very thing you're describing.

    There are a lot of foreign grad students, many from China and India, working in university labs. Pay is almost always horrendous for grad students whether they're domestic or international students. Faculty have the power to terminate assistantships without cause. For foreign students on J-1 visas, that usually means losing their visas and having to leave the country fairly quickly. The threat of having the assistantship revoked allows faculty to harass and abuse grad students or exploit them in ways like imposing excessively long work hours. If the student speaks up, they're at risk of losing their assistantship as retaliation.

    American grad students and postdocs are still subject to abuse but the leverage just isn't quite as strong. The threat is more along the lines of having to go to a different university or perhaps being blacklisted through a bad reference. This is still quite common, but the leverage isn't quite as strong against domestic students and postdocs.

    Academia is built on exploitation, whether it's grad students, postdocs, or adjunct faculty. The administrators cover up abuses and keep pay down for these groups while they're raising tuition and collecting salaries at least well into the six figure range. And if you're a faculty member who brings in a lot of grant (and F&A) money, you can get away with just about anything. Foreign students on J-1 visas who are funded by their advisors or departments might actually be subject to more exploitation than even people on H-1B visas.

    We shouldn't tolerate involuntary servitude and exploitation. But the issues run far deeper than H-1B visas.

    By the way, I work in academia. I've a postdoc. I've either directly witnessed or personally experienced everything I've described in this post. The abuses are rampant.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @11:37AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @11:37AM (#1011924)

      i hope your "apple" falls far from the tree ...

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @02:50PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @02:50PM (#1011978)

      Recently dug this out for another story here, Camile Pagila in 2011:

      Economic analysis is the first principle of Marxism. Professors who were genuine leftists would have challenged the entire economics-driven machinery of American academe the wasteful multidepartmental structure, the divisive pedantry of overspecialization, the cronyism and sycophancy in recruitment and promotion, the boondoggling ostentation of pointless conferences, the exploitation of graduate students and part-time teachers, the subservience of faculty to overpaid administrators, the mediocrity and folly of the ruling cliques of the Modern Language Association.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @02:59PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 24 2020, @02:59PM (#1011984)

      The abusive faculty are condemned to a lifetime of bullying Chinese 21-year olds. Nobody else can stand working with them.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Wednesday June 24 2020, @02:03PM (1 child)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 24 2020, @02:03PM (#1011965) Journal

    ... because we do not permit involuntary servitude within our borders.

    Wait . . . we don't? When did that happen?

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Wednesday June 24 2020, @05:10PM

      by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 24 2020, @05:10PM (#1012053) Journal

      We should be understood to be "We the people" not the shitty government that's increasingly incapable of navigating the 21st century.