JARED KUSHNER IS BEHIND TRUMP'S BACKROOM AMNESTY
Business Lobbies Bombard Trump to Block Immigration Reforms
1 Jun 2020299
6:56
Business lobbyists are bombarding President Donald Trump with demands that he drop his draft plan to let Americans get some of the U.S. jobs now held by at least one million foreign contract workers.
The alarm among business groups suggests that Trump has decided — although not announced — to shut down part of the Fortune 500’s special pipeline of foreign workers, said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
“I think they are clearly nervous that in this [economic and political] environment that a president who ostensibly champions American workers may go against the recommendations of the technology industry,” he said. “They are right to be nervous,” he said, adding, “but they shouldn’t be that worried given this administration’s track record.”
Cutbacks of foreign workers “would substantially limit the ability of many companies to help get the American economy moving again,” said a May 26 letter by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council.
The May 26 letter arrived as U.S. unemployment numbers headed towards 30 million — including many swing-voting college graduates who will either vote for or against Trump in November.
Any cutback to foreign workers “would be potentially devastating to [our members’] ability to grow their business and drive innovation,” said a May 28 letter from a trade association for hiring managers, SHRM.
“Our members have similarly signaled alarm at the prospect of any curtailment of the Optional Practical Training [OPT] program,” said the SHRM letter, referring to the huge OPT program that gives tax-subsidies to U.S. employers that hire foreign graduates, usually by dangling the promise of free citizenship.
The letters from the Chamber and SHRM follow a March 26 letter from many large and smaller firms, which suggested that any visa cutbacks will force companies to unfairly discriminate against foreigners:
We urge you to avoid outcomes, even for temporary periods, that restrict employment-authorization terms, conditions, or processing of L-1, H-1B, F-1, or H-4 [visa worker] nonimmigrants. Constraints on our human capital are likely to result in unintended consequences and may cause substantial economic uncertainty if we have to recalibrate our personnel based on country of birth.
The pipeline of H-1B, OPT, and other visa workers allows Fortune 500 companies, including many technology firms, to keep at least 1.3 million foreign workers in U.S. jobs. It also allows the firms to provide on-the-job training to hundreds of thousands of additional workers in India and elsewhere, so helping the companies to shift at least one million additional jobs overseas via the U.S-India Outsourcing Economy.
But Trump’s draft cutbacks would pressure Fortune 500 companies to hire U.S professionals and graduates.
Polls show the pro-American plan has at least 2:1 support among swing voters in what will be a hard-fought reelection campaign.
“It is mystifying that the president hasn’t done anything meaningful to keep his [2016] campaign promise about ending the H-1B program,” said Krikorian. “They’ve done some very minor administrative things, but there is plenty more they could have done and could still do. Why they are not acting now when the economy is so weak, and there is widespread political support for reforming H-1Bs, I’m not sure … [but] they’re too solicitous of the concerns of tech lobbyists.”
Critics of the OPT program say the numbers show it is used by companies to hire foreign graduates instead of qualified U.S. graduates.
U.S. CEOs prefer foreign graduates because foreign workers will stay put and do repetitive skilled work for many years to get green cards. The OPT program also allows companies to keep importing foreigners for jobs in the high-cost districts along the coasts, instead of setting up offices in lower-cost employees and locations, such as in the districts of Rep. Steve Stivers (R-OH).
But Stivers is trying to collect signatures from fellow legislators for a letter urging Trump to preserve the OPT program:
We urge the administration to publicly clarify that OPT will remain fully intact so we send the right messages abroad about the U.S. as an attractive destination for international students.
…
The last thing our nation should do in this area is make ourselves less competitive by weakening OPT. The program is essential to the many international students who desire not just to study in the U.S. but also have a post completion training experience.
Stivers appeal for more hiring of foreigners — instead of graduates in his own 15th District — is echoed by several additional signatories to his letter. The other signatories include Reps. Bill Flores (R-TX), Peter King (R-NY), Rodney Davis (R-IL), Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN), John Katko (R-NY), and Rob Woodall (R-GA).
The SHRM letter included a threat from one of its members saying they would rather shrink recruitment than hire older Americans or Americans from lower-prestige universities:
The OPT program serves largely as a pipeline for talent in the U.S, also most often for our engineering department. Our on-campus recruiters have shared with us that at the top-tier schools where they recruit, the vast majority of computer science/engineering students are foreign students who rely on OPT to work in the U.S. after graduation. In 2019, we had roughly 45% of software engineering training class hires that were in need of OPT work authorization. Without support of OPT work authorization, we would likely hire 45% less people that would be contributing to engineering work as we can’t find enough qualified U.S. workers to fill these positions.
“What the companies are saying is that Americans are not good enough to staff the modern economy,” said Krikorian. “You have to admire that gall — they are arguing with a straight face that 25 percent of unemployment is not high enough for them to resort to hiring Americans.”
The government’s job is not to provide favored companies with planeloads of suitable workers, Krikorian said. “It is not Congress’s job to maximize their share price — the role of federal policy is to create the rules within which American companies and American workers hash out their relationship” in the free market, he said.
But, he added, “the point is to make sure that companies hire Americans [because] it is really of little benefit [to Americans] if the people they are hiring are not Americans.”
Supporters of the OPT foreign-employee scheme release data showing OPT sends jobs & wealth to wealthy, coastal states.
Why would heartland Senators & Reps. support a GWBush/Obama scheme that sends their jobs to the coasts & their wealth to Wall St.?#H1Bhttps://bit.ly/2LPRrX1
The List: 47 Republicans Lobby for More Foreign Workers While 36M Are Jobless
Getty Images
28 May 20203,586
6:48
Thirty-eight House Republicans have joined nine Republican Senators in lobbying the White House to continue importing foreign workers to the United States even as more than 36 million Americans are jobless.
In a letter to Trump, Republican lawmakers including Rep. Roger Marshall (R-KS) — running against Kris Kobach for Kansas’s open Senate seat — and New York Representitives Elise Stefanik and Peter King ask that businesses continue to be allowed to import blue-collar foreign workers through the H-2B visa program amid mass unemployment.
Every year, U.S. companies are allowed to import 66,000 low-skilled H-2B foreign workers to take blue-collar, non-agricultural jobs. For some time, the H-2B visa program has been used by businesses to bring in cheaper, foreign workers and has contributed to blue-collar Americans having their wages undercut.
The Republican lawmakers claim that even though a record number of Americans in many states are jobless, businesses are still suffering from labor shortages — a claim that is made year-round by the cheap labor lobby.
The Republican lawmakers who signed the letter include:
- Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD)
- Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI)
- Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA)
- Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH)
- Rep. David Joyce (R-OH)
- Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH)
- Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA)
- Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI)
- Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO)
- Rep. Don Young (R-AK)
- Rep. Robert Latta (R-OH)
- Rep. David Rouzer (R-NC)
- Rep. Steve Stivers (R-OH)
- Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD)
- Rep. Ralph Abraham (R-LA)
- Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-MI)
- Rep. Peter King (R-NY)
- Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC)
- Rep. Neal Dunn (R-FL)
- Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK)
- Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY)
- Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA)
- Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI)
- Rep. Mike Conaway (R-MD)
- Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA)
- Rep. Roger Marshall (R-KS)
- Rep. Rob Woodall (R-GA)
- Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA)
- Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA)
- Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-OH)
- Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT)
- Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK)
- Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI)
- Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY)
- Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI)
- Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI)
- Rep. John Rutherford (R-FL)
- Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA)
The Republicans write:
On behalf of the thousands of small and seasonal businesses in our Districts that are struggling in this unprecedented and uncertain economic climate, we respectfully urge you to refrain from imposing any further restriction on the H-2B nonimmigrant seasonal guest worker program as part of any forthcoming executive action relating to immigration and/or economic recovery.
The letter continues:
This is evident as, despite active recruitment by seasonal employers, very few US workers are seeking and accepting seasonal temporary jobs. Therefore, it is important that the H-2B program continue to be available to our seasonal employers as a failsafe in the event that we see a rapid drop in unemployment and a return to the extremely tight labor markets of just a few months ago. Such flexibility to meet business needs is critical to rapid, solid and fulsome economic recovery. [Emphasis added]
…
As such, we urge you to maintain the continued, uninterrupted operation of the H-2B program with the continued requirement that all employers only have access to it based upon their proven and certified need within the statutory cap. [Emphasis added]
The full letter can be read here:
Likewise, this week, nine Republican Senators sent a letter to Trump asking the administration to allow businesses to import more foreign workers.
Specifically, the Senators said businesses must be able to exempt themselves from some existing labor regulations so long as they claim they cannot find qualified Americans to do the work. The Republican Senators who signed the letter include:
- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
- Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)
- Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID)
- Sen. James Risch (R-ID)
- Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD)
- Sen. Todd Young (R-IN)
- Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
- Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK)
- Sen. James Lankford (R-OK)
Today, federal employment data reveal that there is no labor shortage of working- and middle-class Americans who want a job. There are currently more than 36 million Americans out of work, spurred by the Chinese coronavirus crisis.
The H-2B visa program has been widely used by businesses to drag down the wages of American workers in landscaping, conservation work, the meatpacking industry, the construction industry, and fishing jobs, a 2019 study from the Center for Immigration Studies finds.
When comparing the wages of H-2B foreign workers to the national wage average for each blue-collar industry, about 21 out of 25 of the industries offered lower wages to foreign workers than Americans.
In the construction industry, wage suppression is significant, with H-2B foreign workers being offered more than 20 percent less than their American counterparts. In the fishing industry, foreign workers were offered more than 30 percent less for their jobs than Americans in the field. In the meatpacking industry, foreign workers got 23 percent less pay than Americans.
Every year, the U.S. admits about 1.2 million legal immigrants on green cards to permanently resettle in the country. In addition, another 1.4 million foreign workers are admitted every year to take American jobs
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
Trump's attacks on Jeff Sessions anger immigration hawks
| May 28, 2020 12:00 AM
President Trump has made it clear that he doesn’t want Jeff Sessions returned to the Alabama Senate seat he held for 20 years, but the president’s Twitter tirades against his former attorney general could reverberate beyond the Yellowhammer State to produce a backlash among Trump voters concerned about immigration.
Conservative columnist Ann Coulter, once an immigration-centric supporter of the president and author of the book In Trump We Trust, has called Trump a “blithering idiot,” “complete moron,” “lout,” and the “most disloyal actual retard that has ever set foot in the Oval Office” for attacking Sessions, the “ONE PERSON in Trump administration who did anything about immigration.” Fox News host Tucker Carlson has told an Alabama radio host that “Sessions was Trump long before Trump” and had been “the single most impressive member of the Senate.” Sessions announced his comeback candidacy last year on Carlson’s show.
Sessions was the first senator to endorse Trump for president in early 2016, having been persuaded that the businessman and reality TV star was the best vehicle for his populist brand of conservatism. Trump borrowed heavily from Sessions’s immigration policy handbook during the campaign and plucked top adviser Stephen Miller from the 73-year-old Alabamian’s Senate staff. But as Attorney General Sessions recused himself in the Trump-Russia investigation, paving the way for the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, he was forced out of the Justice Department over a year later.
Trump hasn’t forgiven Sessions. He has not only endorsed his Republican primary opponent, former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville, he has railed against Sessions on Twitter, calling him “slime” who had his chance but blew it. “Alabama, do not trust Jeff Sessions,” Trump posted. “He let our Country down.” Tuberville edged out Sessions in the first round of voting thanks to Trump’s endorsement. The two will face each other in a July runoff.
What impact Trump will have on that race is unclear, but immigration hawks nationwide are outraged. "I refuse to believe what’s happening to Jeff Sessions right now is entirely due to recusal,” said RJ Hauman, government relations director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform. “It may be a factor, but don’t forget that those aligned with big business and the GOP establishment have taken hold of President Trump’s policy agenda and campaign strategy. So, no surprise that the man who has long fought for an immigration system that puts the American people first is being thrown under the bus."
Hardliners speculate that son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who sparred with the former attorney general over criminal justice reform as well as immigration, played a role in Sessions’s demise. Now, Trump’s choice, Tuberville, is not well-liked by immigration hawks.
“Even voters attracted to Trump because of his ostensible hawkishness on immigration, but who don't closely follow immigration politics and policy, are likely to be influenced by Trump's ravings,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. “But for those who know the issue, the vendetta against Sessions is just one more indication that Trump isn't actually a restrictionist. I don't mean that he's lying about supporting the wall, etc. — I think that genuinely comes from his gut — but when it comes to the level of legal immigration and guestworker admissions, he's more in tune with Obama and Jeb and Pelosi and Schumer than with Sessions.”
Many MAGA activists are taking the president’s side in the argument, however. Sessions’s replacement, Attorney General Bill Barr, has forcefully unraveled the Trump-Russia investigation and defended the president’s prerogatives. Aspects of the investigation, from warrants to surveil Trump campaign associates to the case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn, have since been revealed to be flawed. The Mueller report found no collusion between Trump and Russia to swing the 2016 election.
The normally mild-mannered Sessions has surprisingly hit back at Trump and defended his recusal as required by law and resulting in the president’s exoneration. Trump’s interventions in Alabama politics have failed before. He endorsed interim Sen. Luther Strange in the last Republican primary for this seat, but voters chose the controversial Roy Moore instead. Almost alone among national GOP leaders, Trump backed Moore in the special election, but he lost to Democrat Doug Jones.
Sessions didn’t have a Democratic challenger last time he ran for reelection and won 97.5% of the vote. Coulter has accused Trump of risking “another Roy Moore fiasco” in the state, but local insiders think Trump could fall on deaf ears again.
“Twitter is an echo chamber, and there are zero undecided voters on the platform,” said Alabama-based Republican strategist Brent Buchanan. "It changes nothing in the Alabama Senate runoff." Either Sessions or Tuberville should be heavily favored over Jones later this year, with Trump at the top of the ticket. It's a rare GOP pickup opportunity as the party defends Senate seats in Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina and Maine.
“Trump's attacks hurt both Sessions and himself, but the question is what's the net effect, and with whom,” said Krikorian. “In Alabama, specifically, they probably hurt Sessions more than Trump, though I still don't think they guarantee a win by Florida Man,” a residency-related nickname for Tuberville.
We could be living through the final months of the Trump presidency.
What kind of message does it send when the president, five months before his reelection contest, throws the first senator ever to endorse his presidency under the bus?
For supporters of Jeff Sessions, President Trump’s decision to snub his former attorney general and endorse a goofy RINO football coach instead is more evidence that the America First agenda that won him the White House, and that Sessions pioneered, has become an afterthought for his administration.
The president rages at Sessions for his recusal from the Russia probe. But here’s a thought experiment: what are the odds that Tommy Tuberville would have distinguished himself as some maverick against the Russia hoax had he been in the Senate? Any takers?
To ask the question is to answer it. It’s because the Republican Party is so unprincipled and unimpressive that Sessions (and Trump) stood out in the first place. Sessions is a decent man, and his patriotic convictions carried him, with justice, to a place of prominence in American history.
Trump, a man of instinct, interprets Sessions’ recusal as a sign of weakness, ignoring his loyalty to the president before, during, and after his White House tenure and his vigorous efforts to pursue the president’s America First agenda as attorney general.
Still America First?
The president, if it wasn’t obvious by now, is not some Leninist ideologue who was planning to methodically deport millions of illegal immigrants. This comes as a disappointment to some of his most ideologically driven supporters as well as to his most delusional detractors.
Sure, the president doesn’t have to (and probably shouldn’t) adhere rigidly to doctrine, but Trump’s personal feud with Sessions is disappointing and counterproductive. While not by itself dispositive, it is part of a familiar pattern of setbacks for some of the strongest advocates of the “America First” message, who have started to weary of his inconsistent attention to the Greatness Agenda.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Trump has been granted a public mandate by a clear majority of Americans to effectively shut down all immigration into the United States. Outside the predictable partisan noises from liberal media and activist groups, it would be a hugely popular decision. Of course, voters have wanted to reduce immigration for many years. They would reward Trump for it without a doubt.
But the president’s much-hyped immigration “moratorium” followed a familiar playbook: after the excitement of the news died down, it was apparent that Trump left a massive exception for hundreds of thousands of guest workers, hardly a logical decision in the middle of the worst economic crisis in decades, and unfair to college graduates entering a brutal job market.
The Trump base has been inured to these reversals. While Kushner is often seen as the culprit, the lack of focus in the president’s governance cannot be overlooked.
It came as a shock when Trump, in a recent tweet, complained that Big Tech is controlled by the “radical Left” and that he would do something about censorship of conservatives. Just by acknowledging the problem, the president thrilled beleaguered members of his base who have been fighting to stay online, with little support, over the last four years.
The president doesn’t have much to gain by liberalizing the MAGA movement, but in the wake of Biden’s “you ain’t black” moment, the president has sought to highlight his efforts to reform the criminal justice system, something that his supporters never voted for in 2016.
Why not, instead of desperately trying to expand the coalition, focus instead on retaining the core voters who got Trump elected in the first place?
What’s Next?
We could be living through the final months of the Trump presidency. Victory is by no means assured in November, and it’s anybody’s guess what will become of the MAGA movement if Trump loses to Joe Biden. The Left will seek revenge without mercy.
Trump is a courageous man, and his ability to survive four years of daily, relentless counter-insurrection is admirable. The nationalist awakening that he inspired would never have been possible without him. He is an American original, and there is no doubt that he is the only choice for American patriots and conservatives in November.
That is what makes the president’s distractions so disappointing. Yes, it doesn’t help that Trump has had to contend with a vicious media, an obstructive permanent bureaucracy, and hoax after hoax for years on end. Neither has the weak, gelded Republican party been of much use.
But none of these excuses will make a difference in November, and they won’t matter years from now when posterity looks back on the Trump era. Will this time be remembered as an inflection point for a dying Republic, the moment America came roaring back, or a tragic disappointment?
There is now even talk that President Trump wants to end the war in Afghanistan before November—an aspiration of noble Trumpian proportions—and he appears to finally have taken serious notice of Twitter censorship (five months before the election!) It remains to be seen if these are momentary, or lasting, attentions.
The last four years have been great fun, but the president wasn’t elected to trigger the libs with memes or let criminals out of prison. He was elected to serve the American people and put America First.
The decisions Trump makes now will resonate loudly.
'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.
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.
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.
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.
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