Live data from Hacker News

U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

wsj.com

421–430 of 1001 posts

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

#421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or they do have a clue, actually want the cruelty, and assume that somehow, some nebulous "good ones" will be exempt from the cruelty. I was at a gathering and someone's garbage uncle was on one of those MAGA-rants about immigration and how we need to kick foreigners out of the country and how they don't deserve to be here and so on. I chimed in that my wife is an immigrant and you're telling me that my family should…

I have a conservative family friend that would always speak his mind at social gatherings about immigration Well he ended up meeting a woman who was an illegal immigrant and they wanted to get married. Luckily she only overstayed a student visa and didn't enter unlawfully but it still took several years for her to eventually gain naturalization. Now all he does is complain about how difficult it is for immigrants ("t…

Yup. It's always "hey, rules are rules" until it personally affects them, and then suddenly it's not fair.

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

#422
post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's clear you are not considering the long-term effects of labor policy. If we want a stronger domestic workforce, the answer is to incentivize Americans to develop the skills we need and to train them when they do not already have those skills. Mass importing foreign labor is not a substitute for building and investing in the domestic workforce.

Btw, this is analogous to the argument for positive discrimination: Preferentially treat one group of people (non-white/women/Americans) even if in the short term the revealed preference of businesses is to hire a different group of people (white/men/immigrants), such that, in the long term, the first group of people can develop the necessary skills to compete with the second group. Short term pain for long term gain…

No it's really not the same because we have laws against racial discrimination, but it is the entire purpose of the state to represent the interests of its citizens above all others.

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

#423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Don't forget Nazism! (AKA, anyone who isn't left-wing.) There's nothing inherently wrong with pausing immigration visas. These commenters act like anything less than fully open borders and unlimited immigration quotas makes you Satan reincarnate. They intentionally over-dramatize everything he does to spread fear and alarmism cause that's all they can do. It's so tiring and nonsensical.

In a vacuum the immigration pause might be innocuous. But put into context the other actions and statements from this administration and it tells a deeper story.

Just think of it as the return of the 19th-century Know Nothings or the 1920s nativists if the Nazi comparison makes you squeamish.

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

#424
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.

How does companies hiring h1b-holders (a non-immigrant visa) relate to a pause on immigrant visa applications?

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

#425
post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But America is a capitalist system. The market has determined that not all Americans deserve jobs. Are Americans willing to work a 996 schedule for 2.00/hr to compete with labor overseas?

Nothing in capitalism prevents a country from prioritizing its own citizens. And it is uncontroversial in most countries that a country should do this. So this isn't a contradiction. Indeed america is capitalist. And it is also prioritizing its own citizens. There is nothing weird about that.

Most capitalist countries have 100% employment for their citizens and little to no immigration? No. "Every citizen who can work having a job" is not something capitalist countries do. They all take ample advantage of foreign labor, they all have corporations that prioritize their own profits and outsource.

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

#426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies can though use proxies like whether a candidate would require visa sponsorship now or in the future.

> Companies can though use proxies So it's a decision between violating the law and acting unethically?

It's unethical to decide I don't want to go through the whole visa bureaucracy to hire employees?

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

#427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed it is. But that’s the point Miller, etc are trying to make. We’re so screwed. Good luck to us ever building up goodwill again.

It will take generations -- if we even get the chance.

We'll be fine. It didn't take Germany & Japan that long after they started WWII

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

#428

Not just immigration, seems like travel in general is becoming difficult too. It's a real shame that just when we have the tech and infrastructure to allow people to travel anywhere in the world within a day, for a single person to be able to explore the entirety of this awesome planet for the first time in human history, that the worst among us have to enforce artificial borders and deny everyone this basic freedom.…

People aren't simply interchangeable units of economic output, and when they live together for long periods of time they develop unique and distinct cultures that are dear to them. Letting the entirety of the world into your country without stops is cultural suicide. If you put any a value in preserving culture you will find it ethical to put some limit on immigration. Assimilation is possible but there is a limit to…

There's no real Us culture to preserve.

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

#429

Well, for starters, good. We all know this whole H1-B situation was to cripple wages and to get an indentured workforce. Glad its being "paused". Would love to it being modified to not being tied to a company, or gottennrid of for good. Sorry about the people who were using it, but also not sorry. Maybe we Americans can get some of those jobs the companies were scamming the govt with.

I encourage you to pause and reflect on how confident and wrong you are at the same time.

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

#430
post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing in capitalism prevents a country from prioritizing its own citizens. And it is uncontroversial in most countries that a country should do this. So this isn't a contradiction. Indeed america is capitalist. And it is also prioritizing its own citizens. There is nothing weird about that.

Most capitalist countries have 100% employment for their citizens and little to no immigration? No. "Every citizen who can work having a job" is not something capitalist countries do. They all take ample advantage of foreign labor, they all have corporations that prioritize their own profits and outsource.

> Most capitalist countries have 100% employment for their citizens and little to no immigration

You must have responded to the wrong post as it has nothing to do with my statement.

That statement is that there is nothing about capitalism that prevents a country from prioritizing its own citizens. That is a perfectly normal and rational thing to do.

Additionally, the exact percentages of unemployement rates also has little to do with capitalism, nor does the uncommonness of fully achieving a lofty but possibly valuable goal also has nothing to do with what capitalism is, nor does it say very much about how valuable that goal is or the value in attempting to aspirationally achieve it.

Post reply on HN