Friday, April 24, 2020

UNEMPLOYMENT UP 26 MILLION IN FIVE WEEKS - TRUMP TELLS WALL STREET CRONIES MORE 'CHEAP' LABOR FOREIGN WORKERS ON THE WAY! - 'Our middle class is dying': Tucker Carlson blames 'advisers' in Trump orbit for 'tidal wave' of immigration

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


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!


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.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.



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 
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.”
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.
Trump’s proclamation says:
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2020
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 ReformNumbersUSA, 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 CoalitionU.S. TechWorkersProUSworkers, 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.orgMyVisaJobs.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
— Lou Dobbs (@LouDobbs) April 22, 2020
@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
— Sara Blackwell (@4US_Workers) April 21, 2020
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
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) April 23, 2020
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
— Neil Munro (@NeilMunroDC) April 21, 2020
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

LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP/Getty Images
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, MicrosoftIBM, 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.
Oxman’s April 21 statement said:
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.
But there's far, far more corp.-$$$$ in the college-grad #H1B H-1B visas.https://bit.ly/2yvytkX 

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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