Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Trump’s Next Move on Immigration to Hit Closer to Home for Tech

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 371 posts

Re: Trump’s Next Move on Immigration to Hit Closer to Home for Tech

#11

Post by ry_ry »

akjainaj wrote: post #2

>Companies would have to try to hire American first and if they recruit foreign workers, priority would be given to the most highly paid. Wow, that's horrible. I mean, a country giving preference to their own kind. When is this nightmare going to end?

I was under the impression that an L1 or L2 currently required a candidate to have "specialist knowledge" that a company wouldn't be able to recruit domestically anyway?

I could be misunderstanding, but isn't this just bringing the h1b in line with that?

Re: Trump’s Next Move on Immigration to Hit Closer to Home for Tech

#15

Post by mrtksn »

ggame wrote: post #4

Why would SV clash with Trump on this? This seems like a sensible solution to the problem and one I've seen posted multiple times here on HN.

I have been reading for years how broken the current system is, so I would bet that there is a market for that.

The issue is the motivation behind the change. What if the changes are designed to please an electorate that is not directly impacted but they just really really want to see some heads rolling?

There are some serious credibility issues with the current US govt. Left or right, populists pretend to swing a magic wand and magically fixing problems. Ban immigrants, implement 90% tax for the rich and so on, until these vote generating policies break apart.

Re: Trump’s Next Move on Immigration to Hit Closer to Home for Tech

#16

Post by smikhanov »

gtufano wrote: post #7
ggame wrote: post #4

Why would SV clash with Trump on this? This seems like a sensible solution to the problem and one I've seen posted multiple times here on HN.

The changes on L-1, E-2 and B1 visas could seriously affect SV talent recruiting. It is a very significant change, in any case. edit: I'm mistaken, it seems... sorry.

No, they won't. B-1 visa holders are not allowed to work, E-2 holders are rare among the SV workforce and don't represent any slice of the job market, L-1 visas are limited to SV companies with foreign presence, of which there are not so many compared to the total amount of startups in SV.

If anything, any potential change to O-1 visas (don't know whether any are planned) will have larger impact than what you're describing.

Re: Trump’s Next Move on Immigration to Hit Closer to Home for Tech

#17

Post by lgleason »

concinds wrote: post #9
akjainaj wrote: post #2

>Companies would have to try to hire American first and if they recruit foreign workers, priority would be given to the most highly paid. Wow, that's horrible. I mean, a country giving preference to their own kind. When is this nightmare going to end?

The whole "major SV tech companies use H1B to employ underpaid slaves" accusation is bunk. Maybe H1B is abused by other companies, but the big Bay Area corps are giving perfectly fine salaries to their H1B staff, as others have shown on HN in the past. Like everything else Trump does, there is no purpose for corrective action, because the problem Trump sees does not exist. H1B is bad for workers' and immigrants' righ…

Outside of SV, in the rest of the country I have spoken with a number of people in IT recruiting who told me that a this has driven down wages. Especially when they opened the door for the L1 visas. Wanna know why so many SV firms are against Trump. Follow the money! The virtuous aspects (IE: humanitarian concerns) are a way to get the sheep to follow. They all have a lot of blood on their hands.

Re: Trump’s Next Move on Immigration to Hit Closer to Home for Tech

#19

Post by yarou »

While I don't agree with the travel ban, this is actually a sensible course of action. The H1B system needs a huge overhaul. The problem is that Trump is told by a so-called advisor that issue x is bad, and there isn't much thought given to the implementation of the solution to that problem.

Re: Trump’s Next Move on Immigration to Hit Closer to Home for Tech

#20

Post by jpatokal »

Looks like this is not just targeting H-1B, but basically all work and business visas for the US:

> The draft of Trump’s executive order covers an alphabet soup of visa programs, including H-1B, L-1, E-2 and B1.

L-1 is intracompany transfer, E-2 is investor, and B-1 is the super common standard "I'm going to a meeting" business visa needed by everybody not in the visa waiver program.

Post reply on HN