| Title | Trump Seems to Alter Stance on H1-B Visas | |
| Date | Sunday March 06 2016, @01:07PM | |
| Author | martyb | |
| Topic | ||
| from the Trump-eting-change dept. | ||
During Thursday night's televised US Presidential debate between the four remaining candidates for the Republican nomination, front-runner Donald Trump acknowledged that he was "softening" his stated position against H1-B immigration visas, because "we have to have talented people in this country".
Trump's web site describes the candidate's hard-line stance against several types of immigration, particularly undocumented workers from Mexico, but also the H1-B program for guest workers in IT and other STEM-related fields:
Increase prevailing wage for H-1Bs. We graduate two times more Americans with STEM degrees each year than find STEM jobs, yet as much as two-thirds of entry-level hiring for IT jobs is accomplished through the H-1B program...
Requirement to hire American workers first. Too many visas, like the H-1B, have no such requirement. In the year 2015, with 92 million Americans outside the workforce and incomes collapsing, we need companies to hire from the domestic pool of unemployed.
Asked point blank by debate moderator Megyn Kelly whether he was changing the policy described on his web site, Trump acknowledged that he was:
I'm changing. We need highly-skilled people in this country. If we can't do it, we will get them in.
In fairness, Trump's rivals for the GOP nomination have also flip-flopped on immigration issues in recent years.
Trump's new position brings him closer to the views of financial media tycoon Mike Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, who is reportedly considering an independent run for the US Presidency. Bloomberg is a vocal advocate for unlimited H1-B visas, an idea which is popular in the executive suites and boardrooms of Silicon Valley but is anathema to many rank-and-file US engineers.
Trump has clarified his statement in a post on his Facebook page:
Megyn Kelly asked about highly-skilled immigration. The H-1B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration: these are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay. I remain totally committed to eliminating rampant, widespread H-1B abuse and ending outrageous practices such as those that occurred at Disney in Florida when Americans were forced to train their foreign replacements. I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program. No exceptions.
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