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U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

wsj.com

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Re: U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

#161

Post by orthecreedence »

FireBeyond wrote: post #115
OutOfHere wrote: post #9

As noted clearly in the article, this is a temporary pause while personnel are brought up to speed on the protocols. The real question is how just or unjust the refusals will be once it is unpaused. It's bad enough that the process is excruciatingly slow. Users keep downvoting my comment even though it is the only literal interpretation supported by the evidence, without any evidence to the contrary. I would rethink…

Consular staff are trained on this as-is. It is hard to imagine a re-training on process that could take any more than two days. And yet we have an entirely open-ended "We have nooooo idea how long this will take!" Garbage. This is the same administration that paused all immigration from Africa except for "Caucasian South Africans" who were classified as refugees by default, regardless of their motivation on immigrat…

> "We have nooooo idea how long this will take!"

It will take about two weeks. Is that right, two weeks? We'll have it done in about two weeks I'm told by some, very intelligent people.

Re: U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

#162

Post by [deleted] »

rayiner wrote: post #151
tootie wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Worked fine" is a pretty vague description for the year we had a Great Depression, world war, Jim Crow, Japanese internment to name a few.

The U.S. was at the apex of its power during those years. Those years are also why we remember earlier immigration waves as “working.” The foreign born population dropped from 15% to under 5% during that period. The Italian and Irish enclaves disappeared and so did the separate ethnic identity of those groups (to a large degree).

[deleted]

Re: U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

#163

Post by tastyface »

majorchord wrote: post #34
Dig1t wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is classic goomba fallacy. Right wing oligarchs want infinite immigration because they get a larger labor pool and lower wages. Right wing normies want less immigration because they don't want to compete with the entire world for a job and don't want to become a minority in their own country. Spend some time on X and you can see the two parts of the right wing attack each other over this issue.

> don't want to become a minority in their own country. Yet in the next thread over, people are crucifying DHH for saying the same thing, except they are spinning it as "denying their right to exist"... somehow.

What? Where is the contradiction? DHH is deplorably wrong for the same reason that these right-wingers are deplorably wrong. (Even more so in the US because none of them are "native" to the country in the first place. Their immigrant ancestors just got here a little bit faster.)

Re: U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

#164

Post by retvrn »

rayiner wrote: post #152
retvrn wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those outside the Americas, yes. Western hemisphere immigration had no meaningful restrictions until 1965.

We had little meaningful immigration pressure from the america at the time. The foreign born population dropped from 15% in 1921 to under 5% by 1970.

We’re backing away from:

> The U.S. had a draconian restrictive immigration policy from 1921-1965.

to “well ok not really but it didn’t matter”?

Re: U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

#165

Post by mc32 »

garbawarb wrote: post #78
black6 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Of not violating the law? Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a company can't use a candidate's citizenship in hiring decisions.

There is no obligation[1] to consider any candidate who needs visa sponsorship. Green cards are different. In hiring they must be considered like any citizen candidate.

For those seemingly not believing this, read: [1]https://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/can-a-company-refuse-to-c...

Re: U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

#166

Post by mcmcmc »

9x39 wrote: post #158
mcmcmc wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rights and benefits are two different things, surely you aren’t that dumb. Do you think non-citizens can get Social Security or a US Passport?

If they have almost all of the rights and almost all of the benefits but none of the responsibilities, which you ignored, then the point stands. They benefit from the entire bill of rights (arguably rightly so). They have better job prospects. They can purchase homes with federal loans. They can attend college. They can invest and own companies. They can even draw from Social Security. For now, non-citizens cannot vo…

[flagged]

Re: U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

#167

Post by mc32 »

sinecure wrote: post #97
dzonga wrote: post #19

the current admin are working hard to destroy the U.S as if they're foreign agents. not only are they making it hard & unbearable for families of US citizens & PR holders to be together. while at the same time - discouraging talent to come to the US at a crucial time when talent is at a premium due to A.I development. last the backwards energy policy of banning renewable energy.

This was never about talent. It's about companies hiring foreigners on h1b visas at below market wages where their life in the USA is contingent on their job performance forcing them to work harder and longer than their peers to remain in the country. It's a situation that only benefits companies, while harming US citizens who have to compete with the lower wages of foreigners.

Recently[1] Microsoft laid off several thousand domestic employees while simultaneously hiring a couple thousand employer-sponsored-Visa workers.

[1]https://www.newsweek.com/microsoft-layoffs-2026-xbox-h1b-vis...

Re: U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

#169

Post by ViktorRay »

erkt wrote: post #66
hvb2 wrote: post #15

So for those that don't know, it's quite common for a visa renewal to be required to leave the country. Depending on the visa, you might have to do this every year. So just imagine, having a normal job in the US and you're asked to leave to renew your visa and this stuff happens. That's no more appointment, not even a new date and you're now very likely unable to work and possibly can't even enter the country to get…

Inhumane maybe, but our government should owe its first allegiance to our citizens wellbeing, not imported workers.

The government should not be doing inhumane things to people. This should not be a controversial statement.

Re: U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

#170

Post by ajmurmann »

tootie wrote: post #123
JauntTrooper wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

It's just such mindless cruelty. It's hard to imagine so many people support this.

I think part of the problem is that most Americans have no clue how the immigration system works. They see a large number of immigrants and hear horror stories about "chaos at the border" and "open border" and assume it's easy to immigrate. Even if you know someone who immigrated, you probably only know that route. Even though I'm a nationalized citizen myself, I can only tell you about the exact route that applied to my specific circumstances and beyond that mostly just know that it's extremely complicated and burdensome.
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