Trump Administration To Overhaul Lottery System For H-1B Visas (ft.com) 72
The Trump administration has announced it would replace the lottery programme used to grant H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers with a system that prioritises higher-paid individuals. From a report: The Department of Homeland Security said it would begin to implement a "weighted" selection process to give an advantage to higher-skilled and higher-paid applicants from February, according to a statement posted on its website. Matthew Tragesser, Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson, said: "The existing random selection process of H-1B registrations was exploited and abused by US employers who were primarily seeking to import foreign workers at lower wages than they would pay American workers."
The move is the latest in a broad crackdown on US immigration by President Donald Trump, who has dramatically stepped up deportations of immigrants and sent enforcement agents into cities across the country to carry out arrests. The change also follows moves earlier this year to curb the number of applicants for the H-1B visa, which is popular among technology and professional services companies, including charging an additional $100,000 fee.
Beryl Howell, a federal judge on the US District Court for the District of Columbia, late on Tuesday ruled the White House could move forward with the application charge after the US Chamber of Commerce had sued in October to block the six-figure fee.
The move is the latest in a broad crackdown on US immigration by President Donald Trump, who has dramatically stepped up deportations of immigrants and sent enforcement agents into cities across the country to carry out arrests. The change also follows moves earlier this year to curb the number of applicants for the H-1B visa, which is popular among technology and professional services companies, including charging an additional $100,000 fee.
Beryl Howell, a federal judge on the US District Court for the District of Columbia, late on Tuesday ruled the White House could move forward with the application charge after the US Chamber of Commerce had sued in October to block the six-figure fee.
Price (Score:4)
Tickets will cost $500,000 and if you buy 10 you get a bonus Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card
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**that does not exist yet and has no organizational documentation
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A start but not enough. (Score:5, Informative)
I have personally seen the H1B process first hand abused by employers which isn't fair to those wanting to come to the US to find a better life. However, this isn't enough. The US also needs to increase corporate taxes on those companies who are currently laying off US employees to merely restaff that exact same role in cheaper labor markets. I've seen many companies in the last few years layoff their US workers to merely repost the role in India for a fourth of the cost and then turn around and announce "record breaking profits".
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I've thought this too, but I wonder what loopholes would then be exploited for it not to matter. That, and the unintended consequences that inevitably occur with such well-intentioned but ultimately naive legislation
Re:A start but not enough. (Score:4, Interesting)
We're seeing it. It's AI. The minute they can replace those people with a clanker; they'll just do that.
Trust me...I'm having to develop a system that's going to replace most of the humans where I work. Chances are once it's done...I'm gone too.
Re: A start but not enough. (Score:3)
Keep in mind who backs this regime (Score:2, Troll)
One metric to see how much this will effect the flow of H1B workers is how much Musk, Andreessen and assoicated MAGAtech overlords whine about being betrayed.
If they're happy, you should not be.
Re:A start but not enough. (Score:5, Insightful)
The US also needs to increase corporate taxes
You could have stopped right there.
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Its why I have said many times that companies need higher taxes...
Companies do not pay taxes. Those are operating expenses that are passed along in the form of higher prices. You, the end consumer, are the ones paying the tax.
Progressive corporate tax is a great idea. (Score:2)
Progressive corporate tax would be a great way to disincentivize monopolies/oligopolies and balance the power of small businesses and large corporations without having to judge every merger or potential abuse of position individually (as the current anti-trust setup does).
False. Companies can do lots of things. (Score:2)
Those are operating expenses that are passed along in the form of higher prices.
Only in the case of low elasticity in the demand. Companies can't always simply raise prices. Some possible alternative effects of higher taxes: smaller profit margins, cost cutting/higher efficiency, less R&D investment, lower dividend payments, bankruptcy.
So no, the end consumer definitely doesn't necessarily 'pay the tax'.
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Labor and costs associated with foreign workers whether insourced on visas or outsourced operations [and I mean all expenses related to outsourcing which disregards paper structuring like self-dealing trust law] shouldn't be deductible. I'm a fan of 0% taxation for a corporation that is sourcing and hiring entirely domestic workers because they are investing everything back into the US economy... same reason the shareholders don't pay themselves dividends.
Should never have been a lottery (Score:5, Insightful)
Should have always been an auction.
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Should have always been an auction.
And the auction (with bids starting at $100K) should have only earned the company's H1B hire an interview to prove his worthiness for the position.
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immigration is good for the country
No, it is not in this context. H-1B is currently used to suppress tech worker wages by bringing foreigners willing to work for a lot less to get a chance at a green card. This benefits nobody except shareholders that get cheap labor. This is not how H-1B was intended to be used.
Re: Should never have been a lottery (Score:2)
Right, but using an auction has a bad property here: favouring the rich against the poor. There's already enough of that. Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft shouldn't have better chances to hire an H-1B than a startup.
Re: Should never have been a lottery (Score:1)
The lottery already favors the rich against the poor. If we can describe tech firms hiring international talent as any kind of "poor."
The way the lottery favors the big boys is that the big boy staffing firms flood the zone with applicants while little guys have to take their chances. A lottery would at least make the big players pay for their monopolization of the H1B pool.
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why? immigration is good for the country, an auction merely rigs who benefits
Good things can still be abused and still need some form of regulation to not degenerate from their original goodness due to exploitation.
Immigration should be supported if local workers cannot or are unwilling to provide what is required at a reasonable wage, not to lower wages by importing cheap labor where local workers at the appropriate wage would be available.
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Re: Should never have been a lottery (Score:2)
The market does. A market by most definitions consists of many independent participants who choose to enter into purely voluntary relationships based on individual calculations of benefit, cost, and opportunity cost of alternatives.
Removing elements of voluntary association is a market distortion. The H1B system is one such distortion that depresses wages below market levels by tethering workers to employers as a condition of remaining in the US. This removes their ability to seek higher wages with another
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That would just make it so that only big established players can get the staff they need.
Given this site's general dislike of H-1B's (Score:2, Informative)
and general dislike of Trump, it will be interesting to see how the cognitive dissonance plays out in the comments.
"Man I dislike does something I want. Mental gymnastics time!" :)
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it will be interesting to see
It will not be interesting. It will be tedious and repetitive. Allow me to illustrate:
"While I really don't like Trump or MAGA, I think this is a good thing... yada yada herp derp
Check back and you'll see.
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TDS? I don't think need to bring into this the ability believe la Presidenta. The Maggots are too far into their Kool-Aid mugs to look around.
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No, he was spot on. You are tedious and repetitive. Claiming TDS anytime there is criticism of Trump, or even anticipating such a complaint, is its own mental disorder.
Re:Given this site's general dislike of H-1B's (Score:5, Insightful)
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Criticizing a political leader for legitimate concerns is not "derangement."
Sure, but that is not what happening here. Criticizing Trump for making it more expensive to bring H-1B workers, it turn making the abuse of the program to bring in cheap IT workers to take US jobs and suppress IT wages, is universally good thing for anyone working in tech. So criticizing Trump for that IS deranged.
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If there exists a cure for aging, opposing it on a hypothetical that it has some unknown flaw and will kill everyone is not reasonable response.
You could argue caution, you could argue that we don't know all the details, but unless you have some facts that were not presented, you can't rationally oppose it on a basis of conjecture and speculation.
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Multiple investigations and news reports have documented that Donald Trump’s presidency created several financial advantages for the Trump Organization and the Trump family.
1. Increased revenue to Trump-owned properties:
Trump’s political position drove business to his hotels, golf clubs, and Mar-a-Lago. Political groups, conservative organizations, and individuals seeking influence held events at these properties. Trum
Re: Given this site's general dislike of H-1B's (Score:3)
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Re:Given this site's general dislike of H-1B's (Score:5, Insightful)
TDS is when you believe that man cares about you, or has something for you.
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TDS is a dog-whistle, like "woke" - something MAGA types throw out there because they can't rationally rebut an argument but want to feel like they've accomplished something.
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I agree that Trump Derangement Syndrome is nonsense. People who have noticed that Donald Trump is not a good person are just what I would call, "normal". People calling these normal people deranged are not telling the truth, and you are right, they have no argument to pursue.
I have no idea why you think it's a dog-whistle, though. I don't know exactly what "dog-whistle" is supposed to mean, but last I heard it had something to do with saying racist things in a way that only other racists would notice. A
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not something I want, it's something designed to halt immigration
Re:Given this site's general dislike of H-1B's (Score:5, Informative)
The H1B program has been touted as a way for companies to hire talent not otherwise available domestically. If focusing the program more-precisely on that goal somehow halts immigration, that should tell you everything you need to know about the H1B program.
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This has nothing to do with overhauling the H1-B program. It is merely another method for la Presidenta to squeeze money out of foreigners and companies, just another institutionalizing of transactional policy on our slide toward Fascism.
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Trump cures cancer.
"La Presidenta hates medical researchers and has killed the careers of tens of thousands of oncologists to line his fascist pockets!" --gtall on any random Tuesday
Are you an AI? Your programmers need to expand your repertoire and vocabulary. Same shit every time.
Re:Given this site's general dislike of H-1B's (Score:5, Insightful)
Because there’s always a loophole or exceptions when you pay him. The administration is completely transactional and they don’t even hide it. Buy a fancy dinner and you get a pardon. Buy a judge an RV or a vacation and they rubber stamp your agenda. Have a case heard by a federal judge you appointed? Same thing.
Re: Given this site's general dislike of H-1B's (Score:2, Offtopic)
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I'm not convinced anything in this administration is actually Trump. We saw Trump for 4 years, and this is different.
Agree.
This is "various special interests using Trump to advance their pet projects."
This part is what I have trouble understanding. I thought that ultra wealthy people and large corporations had the most political capital, and that their interests would restrain Trump. A lax H1B program is good for tech businesses. The tariffs are bad for most businesses. Too much immigration crackdown is bad for a lot of businesses. All of these policies or actions go against what I understood to be the interests of those with actual political capital. And in favor of whom? Steven Miller? Sco
Re: Given this site's general dislike of H-1B's (Score:2)
In retrospect, the country might have been better off if Biden hadn't won.
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I'm not convinced anything in this administration is actually Trump. We saw Trump for 4 years, and this is different.
The other take I've read is that this time, he surrounded himself with idealogues who are more effective at enacting their agendas. Apparently the folks around him last time either weren't adept at getting things done or would undermine him, at least partially. And had a lot of turnover, lol.
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This "reform" involves hiking the price of the program and then creating a "national security interest" carveout that is granted case-by-case by DHS, which just does what the president wants anyway.
That doesn't solve anything other than concentrate the abuse of H-1B visas to companies that don't mind kicking a 7- or 8-figure donation to Trump ballroom or Trump class battleships or Trump library or Arc de Trump or any other initiative between now and mid-cycle elections that Trump can rush past everyone whil
Re: Given this site's general dislike of H-1B's (Score:3)
You laugh now but people are already too far gone to discern good from bad actions, and sadly they have been for years. Everything is partisan and seen thru the lense of prior-guilt, race, skincolor and hatred for the other side.
We both know these people would rather cut out their own tongue than admit orange-man-baaad has done even just a single good, positive thing ever in his entire life. He must not be allowed to be seen in any positive light, so they will bend the truth and use their psychological and
The min fee should be indexed to x2 median income (Score:4, Interesting)
Limited Time Offer (Score:5, Insightful)
Whatever he sets up will be good for less than 3 years.
This is the kind of thing that the next president can easily overturn, and given Trump's known racism, (look at the the DOJ's succesful court cases against him in the 20th century) there is little chance it will stand the test of courts, let alone the test of time.
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the next president
Exactly. When the establishment puppet is writing EOs they'll reverse it all while chanting "racism" and "xenophobia" and big tech will fill their "campaign" coffers.
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"Less than 3 years" is absolutely right. We all know how often our great leader changes his mind on a whim.
Mainly by his tech bro friends (Score:2)
Then 996 (Score:3)
So we have to pay them what the market will bear... Fine. They'll work from 9AM to 9PM six days a week for as long as they're our slave ^H^H^H^H"H employee. When we burn them out, we'll terminate them tell them they have 60 days to either find another job, or leave the United States and get another.
There's nothing in the Fair Labor Standards Act which limits working time for exempt employees.
programmmmmmmmmme (Score:2)
The lottery programmmmmmmmme is being overhauled. The lottery program, however, remains intact.
Job advertisements should have to be online (Score:2)
One of the H1B requirements is that the open jobs must be advertised in the US for a certain amount of time without qualified candidate responses before they can go to an H-1B. The Hiring companies game the system by advertising the jobs in small town newspapers and require applications be filed via the USPS.
Any new system needs to mandate that jobs be posted on top 20 online job sites.
This Visa program should just be eliminated. (Score:3)
Now do the genius visa (Score:2)
That way we won't have strippers getting in by claimig to be a "genius" and working here illegally.
New rules (Score:1)
Must be:
Highly skilled
Highly paid
Norwegian or Swedish
Blonde
Re: New rules (Score:2)
There are plenty of unemployed tech workers, we don't need to import any right now
Huddled Masses (Score:3)
What are the odds that the phrase "huddled masses" is physically removed from the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty by 2029?
Re: Huddled Masses (Score:2)