US unemployment up 26 million in five weeks
An additional 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment last week, bringing the total number of people who have filed jobless claims over the past five weeks to 26 million. Prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, 7.1 million people were already unemployed in the US, meaning that roughly 33 million are now officially unemployed, or over 20 percent of the labor force. The social impact of the pandemic on the US has in some ways already dwarfed that of the 2008 financial crisis, and the unemployment rate is rapidly approaching that of the height of the Great Depression in 1933, roughly 25 percent.
As of Thursday, there were 880,204 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 49,845 deaths in the US, with cases and deaths continuing to grow rapidly.
The official unemployment figures, while staggering in themselves, are known to be a significant underestimation of the true levels of unemployment in the US. Approximately 11.3 million undocumented immigrants live in the US and are barred from applying for unemployment benefits. An untold number of these workers have been laid off, cast into destitution without any supports whatsoever.
Together Omaha food pantry workers load supplies into a vehicle driving up to the pantry in Omaha, Neb., Thursday, April 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
In addition, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of workers have been unable to navigate the complicated online application process, which in some states such as Michigan is the only possible way to apply, as phone applications have halted. It can take days and hundreds of call attempts just to speak with someone. For those whose claims are denied, there is no simple appeals process in most states, and little if any assistance is provided to help these workers.
Millions of workers whose claims have been approved have yet to receive any actual payments. In this regard, the most egregious state has been Florida, where less than 16 percent of all claimants who filed since March 15 have received benefits.
In Ohio, claims for the supplemental $600 provided by the federal government through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program will not be processed until May 15. Pennsylvania only began accepting applicants for this program a few days ago and has not said when benefits will be paid.
For the millions of Americans that have yet to receive unemployment benefits, most are facing financial ruin. A January survey by Bankrate found that only 41 percent of Americans had enough saved to cover a $1,000 emergency. Millions face the prospect of eviction or sliding deeper into debt, which will only compound the immense suffering wrought by the pandemic.
A particularly stark expression of the rapid growth of mass poverty in the US has been the miles-long lines at food banks in cities across the country, as millions now struggle to afford food for their families.
Similar processes are unfolding on a global scale, with the number of unemployed rising astronomically in every country. On Tuesday, the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) warned that up to 265 million people around the world are in danger of starvation and death stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jay Bryson, acting chief economist at Wells Fargo & Co, told Bloomberg News that the number of weekly unemployment claims is beginning to slow down, but “if we open up too soon and this coronavirus comes roaring back then we may in fact see those sorts of numbers again.”
As states such as South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Minnesota and Montana already begin to reopen their economies, amid growing calls by sections of the media and political establishment for a nationwide reopening without adequate safety measures in place, the ruling class is pursuing policies that threaten to produce a mass upsurge in the number of cases in May, with ensuing mass deaths shortly thereafter.
Efforts to quickly reopen the economy are driven solely by the profit motive, and the mass unemployment levels are being used as a cudgel to try to force workers to toil in unsafe conditions. In most states, if workers refuse work that is available, they become ineligible for unemployment benefits, placing enormous pressure on them to return to work despite facing unsafe conditions.
In the White House press conference Thursday, in response to a question about mass unemployment in the US, Trump stated, “I think our economy will start to pick up very substantially as soon as the states start to open.” He went on to make the threat, “They’re going to get back to work, and very fast.” At Monday’s press conference, Trump acknowledged that his administration is working to exempt corporations from legal liability for workers that contract COVID-19.
Georgia began to reopen barbershops, nail salons, tattoo parlors, gyms and other businesses today, with restaurants scheduled to reopen on Monday, under orders from Republican Governor Brian Kemp. More than 860,000 unemployment claims have been filed in the state since mid-March, costing over $500 million.
Employment lawyer James Radford commented to Reuters, “I think that one of the big drivers of this decision by Kemp is to get people off unemployment rolls and having the private sector keeping these people afloat.”
In the drive to restart the economy, capitalism is presenting the working class with the false dichotomy: return to work facing lethal conditions that put you and your family at risk or accept economic ruin with no social safety net whatsoever.
Workers in the US and internationally must reject the mounting calls for them to either return to work facing unsafe conditions or be thrust into abject poverty without any future. The only alternative path, which will become ever clearer in the eyes of millions, is that of socialist revolution. By taking control of the situation and seizing the wealth of the financial aristocracy, the working class can rapidly implement the measures necessary to contain the pandemic globally, provide safe working conditions to all essential workers, and ensure the health and well-being of all those whose labor is not essential.
“Our
entire crony capitalist system, Democrat and Republican alike, has become
a kleptocracy approaching par with third-world hell-holes. This is the way
a great country is raided by its elite.”
Karen McQuillan
“Trump has broken most of his key campaign
promises … here once again he promises his audiences he will end all
immigration for 60 days, but then guts the actual order to where it will have
little impact for American workers.”
“I think it
is great that he did it,” said Hilarie
Gamm, the
pseudonymous software
professional who helped create the American
Workers Coalition. Many American
graduates have been
pushed out of good
careers by
federal immigration policy, she
said, adding, “we’ve been
pushing a long time
to get it in the news.”
U.S. Weekly Jobless
Claims: 4.4 Million
1,147
AP Photo/Alex
Brandon
23 Apr 20202,567
2:58
The coronavirus continued to ravish
the U.S. economy last week, with 4.4 million of American filing first-time
unemployment claims, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
Economists
had forecast 4.25 million new claims for this week. The previous week’s claims
figure was revised down 2,000 to 5,506,500.
Continuing
claims, those made after an initial week of benefits, rose to 15.98 million.
Continuing claims, however, are reported with a one week lag. The total number
of Americans who have lost their jobs since claims spiked five weeks ago
because of coronavirus and shutdowns rose to around 26.4 million, enough to
erase all the job gains since the economy began to recover after the financial
crisis.
The
4-week moving average was 5,786,500, an increase of 280,000 from the previous
week’s revised average.
The
CARES Act, passed to offset the economic impact of the coronavirus and stay-at-home
orders, expanded the ranks of those eligible to file claims for unemployment
benefits and raised the amount paid to unemployed workers. Self-employed
workers and independent contractors can now file for benefits, expanding the
number of claims.
New
claims for state unemployment benefits are a proxy for layoffs. Released
weekly, they are some of the few real-time indicators of economic conditions.
Actual
job losses may be higher than the most recent figures reveal. Applications in
many states have been hampered by websites and phone lines failing due to the
rapid rise in the volume of claims.
Employers
are slashing their payrolls to try to stay afloat because their revenue has
collapsed, especially at restaurants, hotels, gyms, movie theaters, and other
venues that depend on face-to-face interaction. Auto sales have sunk,
non-healthcare related manufacturing has ground to a halt, and factories have
closed.
More
than 90 percent of the U.S. population is now under stay-at-home orders, which
have been imposed by most U.S. states. This trend has intensified pressure on
businesses, most of which face rent, loans, and other bills that must be paid.
The
CARES Act included hundreds of billions of dollars for loans for businesses
that can be forgiven if borrowers keep workers on their payrolls. That could be
holding down the levels of layoffs despite the shutdowns.
The
biggest spike in claims was in Florida, where the Labor Department estimated
claims rose by 324,718 to 505,137. That estimate may include those who lost
their jobs earlier but were not counted due to problems getting on the
unemployment rolls thanks to outdated technology overwhelmed by the surge in
claims.
TRUMP’S CRAP ON
BORDERS AND HIS PRETEND WALL IS ONLY ONE MORE TRUMP HOAX!
Only a complete fool
would believe that Trump is any more for American Legal workers than the
Democrat Party for Billionaires and Banksters!
“Trump
Administration Betrays Low-Skilled
American
Workers.”
The latest ad from the
Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) asks Trump to reject the mass
illegal and legal immigration policies supported by Wall Street, corporate
executives, and most specifically, the GOP mega-donor Koch brothers.
Efforts by the big
business lobby, Chamber of Commerce, Koch brothers, and George W. Bush Center
include increasing employment-based legal immigration that would likely crush
the historic wage gains that Trump has delivered for
America’s blue collar and working class citizens.
Company With Ties To Trump Receives
Millions From Small Business Loan Program
Jovita Carranza,
head of the Small Business Administration, addresses the press earlier this
month at the White House, as Vice President Pence and President Trump listen.
Alex
Brandon/AP
While
many small businesses have found it difficult or impossible to get one of the
Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program loans, a company
owned by a prominent Chicago family with close ties to the Trump administration
was able to get a $5.5 million loan under the program, according to documents
the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.
U.S.
Ambassador to Belgium Ronald Gidwitz, who was appointed in 2018, was
then-candidate Donald Trump's campaign finance chair for Illinois in the 2016
presidential campaign. According to filings with the SEC, Gidwitz's family owns
the majority of Continental Materials Corp., which secured the 1% interest
loan.
Continental Materials makes heating and cooling equipment
and construction products. While it had more than $100 million in sales last
year, it qualified for the loan because it meets the Small Business
Administration's industry-specific "small business" size standards,
according to company chief financial officer Paul Ainsworth.
Still,
the company's loan is much larger than the typical PPP loan, according to
a summary released by the Small Business
Administration last week. The average loan was just over $200,000, and fewer
than 1% of the loans under the program were greater than $5 million.
Ainsworth
told NPR the money would be used to pay the company's 445 employees in the face
of slowing demand for its products.
"We
had planned to furlough people and we delayed those plans," he said.
"To the extent that we had to let people go, we're hiring them back."
While the
company may qualify as a small business under the PPP program, there are many
much smaller businesses that have been unsuccessful in obtaining or even
applying for the loans from their banks.
The
business advocacy group NFIB surveyed a random sample of the 300,000 businesses
in its membership database and found that only about 72 percent of businesses that tried to apply
for a PPP loan were able to successfully submit an application.
Continental
Materials will be able to pay back the loan over two years and may qualify for
it to be forgiven.
When
asked, Ainsworth said the loan is not related to any political activities of
company leaders, and he noted Ronald Gidwitz resigned when he was appointed
ambassador.
Gidwitz
was confirmed to the ambassadorship by the Senate by voice vote in June 2018.
He announced his resignation from the company's board a few days later in July,
according to company SEC filings.
'Our
middle class is dying': Tucker
Carlson blames 'advisers' in Trump
orbit for 'tidal wave' of immigration
Carlson blames 'advisers' in Trump
orbit for 'tidal wave' of immigration
Fox News host Tucker Carlson ripped some
within President Trump's "orbit" for attempting to place corporate
interests ahead of American workers' welfare during the coronavirus pandemic.
On his Tuesday night show, Carlson
critiqued Trump advisers, who he alleges crafted a temporary suspension of
immigration without addressing key concerns of the working class.
"The president is worried about
preserving American jobs," Carlson said. "Unfortunately, and this
seems to be the key, some in his orbit are not as concerned. Their main worry
is making donors happy. And if there's one thing that donors love always, it's
cheap employees. Yes, our middle class is dying at a faster clip than ever
before."
Carlson said the suspension doesn't
address the hundreds of thousands of temporary and guest workers who vie with
Americans for industrial and agricultural jobs.
The Fox News host claimed the suspension
was written by out-of-touch staff members who are "more worried about what
their friends think" of the immigration measures instead of protecting the
jobs of citizens.
Carlson noted the suspension does not
apply to a massive section of immigrants who fight with Americans for
working-class jobs.
"The new moratorium on immigration
will last for 60 days," Carlson said. "The ban will apply only to
individuals seeking permanent residency into this country."
Carlson said Trump's ban, which could be
extended after the two-month period ends, does not apply to hundreds of
thousands of temporary and guest workers who vie with Americans for industrial
and agricultural jobs.
"The purpose of this tidal wave of
immigration has nothing to
do with what advocates of immigration claim immigration is
for," added Carlson. "These visas do not
improve American society in any way.
We have no moral obligation to give
them. There is no mention of guest
workers on the Statue of Liberty."
“Our entire crony capitalist system,
Democrat and Republican alike, has become a
kleptocracy approaching par with third-world hell-holes. This
is the way a great country is raided by its elite.” --- Karen
McQuillan
While many small businesses haven't been able to get one of the
federal government's Paycheck Protection Program loans, a Chicago company with
close ties to the White House has.
Continental Materials Corporation is majority owned by the family of Ronald Gidwitz, who is now the U.S. ambassador to Belgium. During the 2016 election campaign, Gidwitz was the Trump campaign's Illinois finance chair. The heating and cooling company, which had sales of more than $100 million last year, got a $5.5 million loan at 1% interest. That’s much larger than the typical PPP loan, which is usually just over $200,000.
GET THIS BOOK!
Peter Schweizer, author of “Secret Empires: How the American
Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends,”
Bailout of US corporations expands while workers see little
relief
Two weeks
after the passage of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus pandemic corporate bailout
bill, grotesquely misnamed the CARES Act, it is clear that it was only the
initial shot in the funneling of countless trillions of dollars to the
corporate-financial aristocracy that rules America.
While
billions have already flowed to the corporations and banks, the limited
provisions of the act that were touted by both parties as a boon to working
people hit by the shutdown of much of the economy have yet to kick in, and for
millions they likely never will.
The act
includes $454 billion as a Treasury backstop to enable the Federal Reserve
to provide some $4 trillion in cheap loans to major corporations and
banks, meaning the real scale of the bailout—thus far—is more than $6
trillion.
The vast
bulk of the money allocated goes to covering any losses suffered by major
corporations and fueling a new surge in the stock market. That it has
succeeded, at least for the present, in lifting the markets is seen in more
than 10 percent surge in the Dow over the past several trading days. This has
occurred in the midst of an ever-rising toll of death and suffering from the
pandemic and grim projections by bankers and economists of a depression-level
contraction in the economy and a catastrophic growth of unemployment.
The
expanding scale of the bailout and euphoria on the financial markets, alongside
the economic and social catastrophe facing the broad mass of the population,
demonstrates that the interests of the ruling class and those of the working
class are diametrically opposed. The response of the ruling elite and
its two political parties to the crisis has from the onset been single-mindedly
focused on defending the economic interests of corporate-financial oligarchy,
no matter the cost in human life.
In just
the last several weeks, the Federal Reserve Board has announced at least 12
major measures to rescue the financial markets and backstop big business. These
include:
· Two emergency
interest rate cuts, bringing the benchmark lending rate back down to near-zero
· A pledge
to purchase at least $500 billion in Treasury securities and $200 billion in
mortgage-backed securities and to continue the program for “as long as needed”
· Nearly
unlimited sums in short-term loans to 25 large financial institutions that
control the market for repurchase agreements, or repos, including $1.5 trillion
in the days following the announcement
· Foreign
exchange swap lines, the purchase of short-term loans to US corporations in the
commercial paper market, short-term loans to 24 large financial institutions,
and, for the first time ever, direct purchases of corporate bonds and direct
loans to corporations.
The Wall
Street Journal quoted Jean Boivin, head of BlackRock Investment
Institute, as saying, “The amount of measures taken in a short amount of time
is surreal and unprecedented.”
“It’s
kind of crazy how they’ve almost done as much in this week as they did in
several months in 2008,” JPMorgan’s chief US economist Michael Feroli said last
month. “Now they do have the advantage of just being able to dust off [former
Fed Chairman] Bernanke’s playbook.”
Fed
Chairman Jerome Powell gave a blanket
guarantee
of unlimited funds to corporate
America,
telling the “Today” show this week,
“Where
credit is not flowing, we have the
ability
in this unique circumstance to step in
and
provide those loans.”
Now both
the Trump administration and the Democrats have committed to provide an
additional $250 billion to the so-called “Paycheck Protection Program.” That is
the Orwellian name given by the two parties to the $350 billion program
ostensibly established to provide government-backed loans to small businesses,
many of which face bankruptcy as a result of the shutdown of much of the
economy, and save the jobs of their workers over the next
eight weeks. (That this is farcically inadequate, even if implemented in
full, in the midst of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression,
is self-evident).
The
program is designed to provide a windfall for the big banks, which actually
extend and administer the loans that are backed by the Small Business
Administration (SBA). This ensures that Wall Street receives billions of
dollars in fees and other charges.
On the
eve of the official launching of the program last Friday, the law was amended,
under pressure from the banks, to double the interest rate from 0.5 percent to
1.0 percent. Now the banks are demanding that the Fed buy any loans they extend
to small businesses so as to remove them from their balance sheets. This will
allow them to more freely engage in financial speculation and parasitic
activities such as stock buybacks.
Moreover,
the great bulk of the money will go not to mom-and-pop groceries, gas stations
or eateries, but rather to large corporations that are included in the program.
Thus, for example, the program was amended to include billion-dollar restaurant
and hotel chains.
Small
businesses desperate for cash are finding it difficult if not impossible to
actually find lenders who will provide the loans, even if their applications
are approved by the SBA. Banks, intent on maximizing profits, are turning down
applications right and left.
Citigroup
is refusing to participate. Bank of America is not accepting applications from
companies that have borrowed from other banks. Wells Fargo says it has already
reached “capacity.”
Hundreds
of thousands of businesses have applied under the program, but to date only a
handful have received any money.
Meanwhile,
congressional Democrats are pressing the Trump administration to expand the $50
billion bailout of the airlines included in the CARES Act. This is, supposedly,
another “jobs-saving” effort. Delta, for its part, has already laid off
thousands of its employees.
There are
no real restrictions in the law on how the corporations use the money they are
given by the government. No one should doubt that the airline carriers, which
spent some $16 billion over the past three years to purchase their own stock—in
order to further enrich their top executives and major investors by driving up
the stock price—will use their bailout money to do more of the same.
The Trump
administration, for its part, is reportedly considering such additional “stimulus”
measures as a payroll tax cut—which would starve Social Security of funding—a
capital gains tax cut, 50-year Treasury bonds and a waiver that would relieve
businesses of liability for employees who contract the coronavirus on the job.
Trump has
moved to negate even the token congressional oversight of the bailout program
mandated in the law. On Monday, he named a White House lawyer and Trump
loyalist, Brian Miller, as inspector general of the Treasury Department’s $350
billion small business (“Payroll Protection Program”), and on Tuesday he
removed Glenn Fine as head of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee,
tasked with monitoring the entire $2.2 trillion program. Trump replaced him
with a “senior policy adviser” at US Customs and Border Protection, Jason
Abend.
Workers
are finding that the promised relief from the bailout law—which accounts for
only a small fraction of the total cost of the measure—is uncertain if not
entirely illusory.
The New York
Times reported Monday that many Americans will not receive the
promised relief check of $1,200, plus $500 for each child, until August or
September. As many as 10 million low-income, childless adults who are eligible
for the stimulus payment program may receive nothing because they have not filed
tax returns. Millions more, including undocumented workers, prisoners, students
and adult dependents are excluded.
As for
the $250 billion expanded jobless benefit part of the law, which is supposed to
extend state benefits for 13 weeks and add $600 a week in federal funds for up
to four months, workers are finding it all but impossible to apply. Multiple
state unemployment websites have crashed under the crush of millions of
applicants, and scenes of hundreds of workers lining up, in the midst of a
pandemic lockdown, to apply in person are proliferating around the country.
Watch–Trump:
Immigration Pause Will Not Apply to H-2A Visa Workers
16
JOHN BINDER
21 Apr 2020517
President
Trump revealed on Tuesday that his executive order pausing most legal
immigration in the midst of the Chinese coronavirus crisis will not keep
farmers from fast-tracking foreign workers into the country.
During his daily press briefing, Trump said the upcoming executive order to
pause immigration to the U.S. will exempt foreign workers arriving through the
H-2A visa program that delivers an endless flow of cheap labor to farmers.
BLOG:
‘OUR FARMERS’ ARE HIS BIG AG BIZ DONORS WHO WANT UNLIMITED OF NUMBER OF CHEAP
SEASONAL LABOR WHO WILL NEVER LEAVE THE COUNTRY AND WILL START ANCHOR BABIES
FOR WELFARE THE DAY THEY UNLAWFULLY SET FOOT IN U.S.
“The farmers will not be affected,” Trump said.
Trump said his administration is actually making the process
easier for farmers to more quickly get H-2A foreign visa workers into the U.S.
— referring to the State and Agriculture Departments’ orders to waive visa requirements and
allow visa-holders to stay in the country for more than three years.
“No, the farmers will not be affected by this at all,” Trump
said. “If anything, we’re going to make it easier, and we’re doing a process
for those workers to come in to go to the farm where they’ve been for a long
time.”
Trump said a pause on immigration is necessary, though, to make
sure at least 22 million unemployed Americans are not forced to compete against
cheaper, foreign workers for U.S. jobs.
“I want our citizens to get jobs. I don’t want them to have
competition,” Trump said. “I want the American worker and our American citizens
to be able to get jobs. I don’t want them to compete right now.”
The H-2A program allows American farms to import a limitless
number of foreign workers and pay them below-average U.S.
wages. American farms do not wholly rely on H-2A foreign visa workers to
fill agricultural jobs, as the foreign workers make up only about ten percent
of the total U.S. crop farm workforce. Last year, U.S. farmers hired roughly
250,000 H-2A foreign visa workers.
In 2017, H-2A foreign visa workers picking crops were paid about
two percent less than their American counterparts. Likewise, foreign visa
workers operating agricultural equipment were paid 23 percent less than the
national average U.S. wage. The largest wage discrepancy comes with H-2A
foreign visa workers who take jobs as first-line supervisors for farming and
fishing. They are paid about 95 percent less than their American counterparts.
Trump’s
Immigration Proclamation Starts 50-Day Debate over Wages and Jobs
44
John
Moore/Getty Images
23 Apr 2020419
9:09
President
Donald Trump’s White House proclamation Wednesday declares legal immigration
can hurt Americans’ wages, and gives the public 50 days to organize a political
push against the D.C. establishment’s support for the cheap-labor status quo.
“I think it is great that he
did it,” said Hilarie
Gamm, the pseudonymous
software
graduates have been
pushed out of good
careers by federal
immigration policy, she
said, adding, “we’ve been pushing a long time
to get it in the news.”
The immediate policy contents of
Trump’s proclamation are minor, but “it is good that the president has
committed to revising this in 50 days,” said Jessica Vaughan, the policy
director at the Center for Immigration Studies. “That gives Americans the
opportunity to weigh on what should happen, and it gives experts within his own
administration the time to prepare good policy options.”
Trump’s
unprecedented proclamation about wages and migration comes 30 years after
Washington, DC, adopted a high-immigration, low-wage economic strategy by
approving President George H. W. Bush’s 1990 pro-employer immigration-expansion bill.
Excess labor supply affects all
workers and potential workers, but it is particularly harmful to workers
at the margin between employment and unemployment, who are typically “last
in” during an economic expansion and “first out” during an economic contraction.
In recent years, these workers have been disproportionately represented
by historically disadvantaged groups, including African Americans and other
minorities, those without a college degree, and the disabled. These are
the workers who, at the margin between employment and unemployment, are likely
to bear the burden of excess labor supply disproportionately.
…
There is no way to protect already
disadvantaged and unemployed Americans from the threat of competition for
scarce jobs from new lawful permanent residents by directing those new
residents to particular economic sectors with a demonstrated need not met by
the existing labor supply.
This
focus on jobs and wages is a huge shift from the establishment’s worldview,
which insists working Americans actually benefit economically from the
government’s policy of mass immigration.
Roughly four million Americans turn
18 each year to search for jobs, stable careers, and affordable homes. But the
federal government imports roughly one million legal immigrants a year,
alongside the inflow of visa workers and illegal migrants, to compete against
them for jobs and housing.
Trump’s proclamation gives the
public 50 days to make a public case for a low-immigration, high-wage national
economy, saying:
Whenever appropriate, but no later
than 50 days from the effective date of this proclamation, the Secretary
of Homeland Security shall, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the
Secretary of Labor, recommend whether I should continue or modify this
proclamation.
However, Trump’s policy is far less
sweeping than the promise of his original tweet.
In light
of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs
of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to
temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!
But
the promise of Trump’s tweet was blocked amid furious closed-door lobbying by
hugely wealthy Fortune 500 companies and elite investors. Their
opposition was chiefly intended to stop the inflow of non-immigrant, white
collar visa workers, including the roughly 900,000 H-1B workers who spike stock
prices by shrinking salaries for U.S. professionals.
The April 22 proclamation exempts
the resident population of roughly 1.5 million white-collar visa workers from
curbs.
That was a deep disappointment to
many supporters, including some liberal graduates who are forced to vote for
any politicians who protect their salaries and jobs from the Fortune 500’s army
of visa workers. “I gave to your campaign from my severance the last time I was
replaced by a foreign worker,” said a message from a U.S. professional named
James. “You don’t deserve your voters.”
But Trump’s offer of a June re-match
between voters and the Fortune 500 gives the public another chance to shift the
nation’s economic policy towards employees, say reformers.
Many
polls show American voters like — and want to like — immigrants. But the polls
also show the public strongly objects to companies hiring foreign workers before American employees.
For example, an August 2017 poll reported 68
percent of Americans oppose companies’ use of H-1Bs to outsource U.S.-based
jobs that could be held by Americans.
Professionals in many commercial
jobs outside journalism recognize the job-market impact of the visa worker
programs. Many engineers, designers, software experts, and others have provided
their stories, nearly always with the demand that their identity be shielded
from hostile hiring managers. For example, one software professional recently
provided this note to Breitbart News:
My company laid off [nearly all] of
its IT contract labor. However, a few contractors were kept on to maintain the
existing infrastructure. I did not see a single American keep their contract …
managers assume they can rehire the Americans on a whim if things pick back up.
If they laid off an H1B then that H1B would have to depart [for home].
Another
told Breitbart News
I
work as a computer scientist and know firsthand how out of control these H1B
visas are. Constantly see job postings asking for 10 years of experience
[working] 4-year-old-software so the [employers] can turn around and plead to
the government for a low wage replacement from another country.
“I’d
like him to end OPT, H4EAD, and cut back H-1B to be merit-based and less than
10 percent of what is today,” said Gamm. “I’m hoping that Trump and his
administration are going to put Americans first.”
There
is a wide variety of groups and activists that are already pushing at Trump to
change the nation’s cheap-labor policy — amid the establishment’s well-funded
efforts to portray the mainstream debate over economics and class as an
illegitimate demand for “xenophobia.”
For
example, FWD.us was founded by wealthy West Coast investors to
promote the doomed 2013 “Gang of Eight” amnesty and cheap-labor bill. On April
23, it dismissed Trump’s proclamation, saying:
Slashing
legal immigration in response to a public health crisis is as ridiculous as it
is dangerous. Let’s be honest: this has nothing to do with public health or
economic well-being during the COVID-19 crisis. This executive order is about
two things: first, this is a political act to demagogue and distract from
President Trump’s abysmal handling of the COVID-19 crisis, including a lack of
testing, ahead of the election. Second, it is a policy effort by hardliners to
exploit this crisis to enact their awful, decades-old wish list to slash
immigration radically.
The
reform groups include national groups with permanent D.C. and grassroots
support, such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform, NumbersUSA, and US Tech Workers.
The
groups also include a large number of white-collar graduates who are trying to
influence politics even as they work their jobs and seek their next
contract. American professionals have organized to lobby against the H-1B
program via the American Workers Coalition, U.S. TechWorkers, ProUSworkers, and White Collar Workers of
America, and TechsUnite.US.
These
groups also share their expertise to broadcast data to the public and to
reporters via SAITJ.org, MyVisaJobs.com. and government
sites.
Helping America Recover: @EdRollins @mgoodwin_nypost say when jobs become available, they should be going to American
workers, not foreigners through visa programs. #KAG2020 #AmericaFirst #Dobbs pic.twitter.com/XoyWlA0ggD
@realDonaldTrump please observe the high number of likes and retweets to this tweet.
Now ask the same people if they “like” your actual “immigration suspension”.
Listen to your base! https://t.co/QL4bNY35y7
Correct.
President @realDonaldTrump had
the power to sign a grand Immigration Moratorium to save the American Worker.
He chose not to.
It’s
up to all of us to push him to fix that mistake. #ExpandTheBan #ImmigrationMoratorium https://t.co/YNkUYVuHOn
Trump’s 50-day clock includes a
30-day deadline for federal agencies to gauge the huge economic impact of the
nation’s immigration policies, which inflate the new labor supply of
job-seeking workers by roughly 25 percent each year. The proclamation says:
Within
30 days of the effective date of this proclamation, the Secretary of Labor and
the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of
State, shall review nonimmigrant programs and shall recommend to me other
measures appropriate to stimulate the United States economy and ensure the
prioritization, hiring, and employment of United States workers.
Many advocates for American graduates &
workers cheered when Trump announced his temporary immigration shutdown.
Business & investors, of course, oppose any shutdown of their foreign-graduate pipeline. #H1B https://t.co/gw402H0wWZ
Business & investors, of course, oppose any shutdown of their foreign-graduate pipeline. #H1B https://t.co/gw402H0wWZ
But Trump’s zig-zagging between
donors and voters is alienating many of those who stuck with him in 2016.
“We
knew it was best not to react to Trump’s initial claims about stopping
immigration or any immigration matter because his past behavior has shown us
there is an 80% chance that what he is telling us isn’t true,” said William
Gheen, the founder of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, or ALIPAC.
“Trump has broken most of his key
campaign promises … here once again he promises his audiences he will end all
immigration for 60 days, but then guts the actual order to where it will have
little impact for American workers.”
Trump
Exempts Fortune 500’s Visa Workers from Immigration Curb
21 Apr 20201,661
6:34
President
Donald Trump has exempted the Fortune 500’s international labor supply from his
order for a temporary immigration shutdown.
“This order will only apply to individuals seeking
a permanent residency,” Trump said in an April 21 press conference at the
White House. He said:
It would be wrong and unjust for
Americans laid off by the virus
to be replaced with new immigrant labor flown in
from abroad. We must first take care of the American worker —
take care of the American worker. This pause will be in
effect for 60 days, after which the need
for any extension or modification will be evaluated by
myself and a group of people, based on economic
conditions at the time.
…
[It] will not apply to
those entering on a temporary basis. As we move forward, we’ll
examine what additional immigration-related measures should be
put in place to protect U.S. workers. We want to protect our U.S.
workers and I think as we move forward, we will become more
and more protective of them … The last thing we want to do is
take American workers’ jobs.
Thee white-collar reporters did not ask
Trump why he exempted the corporate visa workers from taking jobs away from
other white-collar Americans. One reporter, however, asked him if he is using
the coronavirus epidemic to fulfill a campaign promise to reduce legal
immigration.
“I want our citizens to get jobs — I don’t
want them to have competition,” Trump responded, adding that the policy document
is being drafted for signature, likely on Wednesday.
“The decision not to block guest worker
programs — for now — is a concession to the backlash from business groups who
assailed the White House on Tuesday,” reported a New York Times article.
“President Donald Trump’s new executive
order banning immigration to the United States will apply narrowly to those
seeking permanent immigration status, a senior administration official said on
Tuesday,” said a Reuters report. The
report added, “Other workers such as those on so-called H1-B visas would
be covered in a separate action, the official said.”
The rollback of the expected curbs on visa
programs will be a huge disappointment to the many American graduates who say
they have been pushed out of Fortune 500 jobs and careers by the alliance of
U.S. investors, managers, and foreign visa workers.
Many advocates for American graduates & workers cheered when Trump
announced his temporary immigration shutdown.
Business & investors, of course, oppose any shutdown of their
foreign-graduate pipeline. #H1B https://bit.ly/3cDouJ0
Pro-American Activists: Trump's Temporary Immigration
Halt Is 'Awesome'
So Trump will come under increasing
pressure during the 2020 campaign to fulfill his 2016 promise to curb the H-1B
visa. That pressure will come from millions of swing-voting graduates who see
good jobs disappearing all around them — and see the major companies employing
roughly 1.5 million white-collar visa workers.
In fact, his promise of the 60-day review
is his invite to millions of swing-voting American graduates to rally against
the visa worker programs during the 2020 presidential election.
The college graduate protest will be spiked
by the continued economic turmoil and the routine inflow of foreign visa
workers. For example, Trump’s federal government is on track to allow U.S.
companies to import 85,000 new H-1B workers during the next several weeks.
Fortune 550 companies, smaller companies,
and universities keep a population of roughly 1.5 million visa workers in U.S.
jobs, and they also use those workers to transfer many additional jobs to
corporate allies in India and other countries.
The NYT article
did not include any detail about the draft directive, which may split the
difference between business demands and the public’s support for a shutdown of
immigration and of many visa worker programs.
But the article included comments from
advocates for the nation’s powerful and wealthy technology companies.
Business groups had exploded in anger on
Tuesday at the threat of losing their access to foreign labor .
…
“This is both a political act to demagogue
and distract from his awful handling of the Covid-19 crisis and lack of
testing,” said Todd Schulte, the president of FWD.us, a technology group that advocates for
immigration, “and it is also a policy effort by hardliners to use this crisis
to enact their awful, decades-old wish list to radically slash immigration.”
…
Jason Oxman, president of the Information Technology
Industry Council, a tech industry trade group, said in a statement earlier on
Tuesday that “the United States will not benefit from shutting down legal
immigration.”
The members of Oxman’s group include Accenture, Adobe, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, IBM, and PWC. Many of these Fortune 500
companies sideline American graduates to hire foreign visa workers via programs
such as the H-1B and Occupational Practical Training
program.
The ITI group also includes some of the
Indian-run outsourcing companies that import many visa workers from India. The
Indian-run companies include Cognizant and Tata Consultancy Services. Indian-run companies supply visa
workers to many banks, insurance companies, utilities, auto manufacturers, and
many other companies.
Some of the most recognizable and dynamic
American technology companies were started by immigrants, and today’s
immigrants to the U.S. are valuable members of the U.S. technology
industry workforce … the United States will not benefit from shutting down
legal immigration. Tech workers – whether from the United States or another
country – are playing an essential role in America’s response to COVID-19. They
will be vital to the U.S. economic recovery and must remain part of the
workforce. We urge President Trump not to endanger the country’s economic
recovery by closing its economy to the rest of the world.
Trump's migration suspension will protect wages, esp. for blacks &
Latinos, says WH press secretary.
That might mean easy action against the abuse of B-1 visitor-not-worker
visas.
White House Says Immigration Suspension Will Protect
Wages
Todd Schulte’s FWD.us group was created by
West Coast investors, including Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, to help pass
the 2013 “Gang of Eight” wage-cutting amnesty bill.
Many polls show that American voters like —
and want to like — immigrants. But the polls also show that the public
strongly objects to companies hiring foreign workers before American employees. For example, an August
2017 poll reported that 68 percent of Americans
oppose companies’ use of H-1Bs to outsource U.S.-based jobs that could be held
by Americans.
Administration officials are touting the
draft policy as a boost to blue-collar wage earners but apparently not to
white-collar graduates:
FLASHBACK: Then-Senator Barack Obama in 2006: “huge
influx” of immigrants “threatens to depress further the wages of blue-collar
Americans and put strains on an already overburdened safety net.” https://books.google.com/books?id=k85pcYttpW0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=audacity+of+hope&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjA0ZyBoI_ZAhUjwFkKHYmCC0UQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=%22the%20number%20of%20immigrants%22&f=false …
The Audacity of Hope
FLASHBACK: Senator Bernie Sanders in 2015: “You think we
should open the borders and bring in a lot of low-wage workers, or do you think
maybe we should try to get jobs for those [American] kids?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf-k6qOfXz0 …
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