Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy Face Backlash from MAGA Movement for Not Only Backing But Offering More Visas to Foreign-Born Skilled Workers

[Arlette]

So, the law is being exploited at best. That need to end. The H-1B visa crowd can go back home.

Musk did say that there will be hardship before Trumpy can deliver that new Golden Age that will make America great again.
Don't elect a con man if you don't wanna get conned.

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

Do you understand how the H-1B program works?

In order to have an H-1B petition granted the employer must demonstrate that they cannot fill the position from the available domestic labor pool and they must pay the H-1B worker wages equivalent to what domestic workers with the same qualifications doing the same job earn.

Employers found to be violating these rules get fined and banned from the H-1B program.

No, they don't have to 'demonstrate' that they cannot fill the position from the available domestic labor pool, demonstrate implies a little show & tell. All they have to do is "attest" to the fact that they cannot fill the position from the available domestic labor pool.

One thing that is never thought of to the best that I can ascertain, is the cultural differences that can occur. In one instance a complete & total lack of personal of professional integrity and ethics - meaning no qualms about lying, cheating & stealing from others to save their own behinds (can't meet your deadline, just steal someone else's work, pass if off as your own and then get promoted) <---- This kind of shit is what the problem is

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

Do you understand how the H-1B program works?

In order to have an H-1B petition granted the employer must demonstrate that they cannot fill the position from the available domestic labor pool and they must pay the H-1B worker wages equivalent to what domestic workers with the same qualifications doing the same job earn.

Employers found to be violating these rules get fined and banned from the H-1B program.

The US DOL has less than a dozen of them listed on their debarment/enforcement page

 

[DonGlock26]

Musk did say that there will be hardship before Trumpy can deliver that new Golden Age that will make America great again.
Don't elect a con man if you don't wanna get conned.

He's much better than the Delaware gangster.

 

[Toro]

 

[Zincwarrior]

View attachment 1058692

This is who you voted for

 

[Zincwarrior]

This is a big divide. I am surprised at Trump's silence.

Trump uses foreign workers and does not give a SHIT about you.

 

[DonGlock26]

This is who you voted for

I didn't for Musk, Vivek, or Kamala.

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

Again, the problem isn't with the H-1B program it's with the enforcement of the rules that already exist, we need the H-1B program to fill positions the domestic labor pool cannot fill. As someone that has worked in the tech sector for over 35 years and has had to fill highly skilled positions via H-1B's because I could not find a qualified person from the domestic labor pool, I speak from personal experience on this.

One exception does not prove the rule.

So what are your thoughts on this, when the major tech companies do a mass layoff and then weeks later apply for a bunch of H-1B visas?

After Mass Layoffs, Silicon Valley Renews Lobbying Biden to Lift Cap on Foreign Workers​

Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Salesforce, and other tech giants use the H-1B visa program as a source of cheap labor, according to critics.​

Lee Fang​

Jun 12​

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Mere months after record layoffs, a trade group representing Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Salesforce, and other technology giants is pressuring President Joe Biden’s administration to allow more temporary foreign workers to work in the United States through the H-1B visa program for people with specialized skills.​

​

The latest data showing surging applications for the visas “makes clear that there is not enough H-1B visas authorized by Congress to meet U.S. employer demand,” Compete America, a group that represents Silicon Valley firms on immigration policy issues, argued in a June 1 letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.​

​

The letter calls for changes designed to expedite and streamline the visa application process. In the appeal to Mayorkas, Compete America claims that the current annual H-1B visa cap of 85,000 “remains insufficient to meet the needs of our economy.”​

Metadata from the letter shows that it was edited by multiple tech attorneys, including Barbara Leen, an immigration attorney for Microsoft. Peter Schiron, an assistant general counsel and immigration advisor at Deloitte, a consulting firm that advises corporate interests on outsourcing strategy, also participated in the editing process.​

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The letter was also organized by TechNet and the Information Technology Industry Council, two lobbying groups that also represent Silicon Valley interests.​

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Earlier this year, the same firms demanding more access to foreign labor laid off tens of thousands of American workers. Microsoft laid off over 10,000 employees. Google laid off 12,000 employees. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, laid off 21,000 employees. Amazon laid off 27,000 employees. And Salesforce announced a 10% reduction in its workforce, a cut estimated to affect about 8,000 people.​

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In a number of cases, those same companies appear to have swiftly replaced the workers they terminated with recipients of H-1B visas. As I previously reported on this Substack, Amazon, Google, and other firms applied for special foreign worker visas in February and March, just weeks after announcing layoffs. Records released by the Department of Labor show that those firms received approval from the Biden administration to hire H-1B visa recipients for computer engineering, programming, and design roles.​

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But the tech giants complain that even the current number of visas that the federal government awards them is insufficient. Currently, the law allows for 65,000 new H1-B visas per year, along with 20,000 visas for individuals with a master’s degree or higher. Firms may apply to renew the visas. As many as 600,000 foreign workers currently work at U.S. firms through the program. ​

Compete America has likewise long played a controversial role in advocating for more foreign visas on behalf of major technology companies such as Microsoft and Facebook. The organization, which dates to 1996 and was originally called American Business for Legal Immigration, has pushed for expanded foreign visas in nearly every major immigration overhaul. ​

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Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, testified in 2008 before Congress on the issue, demanding a dramatic increase in the H-1B visa cap. Facebook, which paid to settle charges that it violated immigration law by discriminating against American workers in favor of H-1B visa holders, has similarly made the visas a central demand among its lobbyists.​

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Research suggests that these tech companies favor the program because it saves them money, rather than because it fills an otherwise unfillable labor gap. Although the H-1B visa program bolsters corporate profits, the use of foreign workers in the tech industry has depressed wages by as much as 10.8%.​

​

The H-1B program began in 1990 to deal with labor shortages in high-tech industries. But there is evidence that companies have begun to rely on it to reduce labor costs. Despite a provision of the H-1B visa program statute that requires the use of foreign workers only when qualified Americans are not available, corporations routinely fail to comply with that requirement.​

The Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank that receives some funding from labor unions, has documented major corporations’ widespread abuse of the H-1B visa program, including systematic underpayment of foreign workers under the program.​

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Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Facebook take advantage of the foreign worker program "in order to legally pay many of their H-1B workers below the local median wage for the jobs they fill," EPI experts wrote in a May 2020 report on the topic.​

Those practices continue to the present day, according to EPI. "Rather than turning to the H-1B program as a last resort when U.S. workers cannot be found, most employers hire H-1B workers because they can be underpaid and are de facto indentured to the employer," the think tank wrote on its website in April.​

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Companies are keen to exploit the H-1B visa program because of the power it gives them over a subset of highly skilled workers. Foreign nationals working in the United States on an H-1B visa retain legal status in the U.S. tied to employment, making it nearly impossible for them to bargain for better working conditions or higher pay.​

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Year after year, news reports emerge of businesses replacing American workers with H-1B visa recipients. In some cases, companies have instructed laid-off American workers to train their foreign visa-holder replacements.​

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In 2015, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), led a bipartisan group of senators urging the Obama administration to crack down on corporations’ use of foreign visas to undercut American labor.​

That year, Disney and Southern California Edison, a utility interest, had forced laid-off workers to train their foreign H-1B replacements.​

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"A number of U.S. employers, including some large, well-known publicly traded corporations, have reportedly laid off thousands of American workers and replaced them with H-1b visa holders," the senators wrote in a letter to then-Attorney General Eric Holder, then-DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, and then-Secretary of Labor Tom Perez. "To add insult to injury, many of the replaced American employees report that they have been forced to train the foreign workers who are taking their jobs."​

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Image via DigitalVision Vectors/Getty Images​

​

© 2023 Lee Fang​

548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104​

Get the appStart writing​

 

[DonGlock26]

Trump uses foreign workers and does not give a SHIT about you.

Who doesn't these days? At least, he wants to stop illegal immigration.

Remember who did the most to defeat the Democrats- Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

 

[Gracie]

Wow. What's next? Dog face pony soldier?

 

[Moonglow]

The rich are not on the side of labor...

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

Elon fires white Americans, hires Indian immigrants.

That part about the H-1B visa holders having to stay with their job irrespective of how they are treated (allegedly) is because their visa is tied to their employer or rather issued to their employer. If they leave their job, they have to leave the country.

I wonder if they could find a new organization to sponsor their visa is they would still have to start the process all over again.

 

[Moonglow]

View attachment 1058762Wow. What's next? Dog face pony soldier?

Geriatrics taking hold?

 

[Moonglow]

The wealthy want the illegals if not they would have been gone long ago like the time Reagan let them stay by making them legal.

 

[DonGlock26]

 

[DonGlock26]

 

[Zincwarrior]

I didn't for Musk, Vivek, or Kamala.

Oh contraire!!! He is your boss now.

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

Yeah, LibsOfTicktock is really a liberal account. MAGAtards are so ******* stoopid.

Companies can do just about anything they want to as long as they claim it's for "budgetary" reasons.

 

[DonGlock26]

All kinds of H-1B vise data here:

H-1B Employer Data Hub

The H-1B program allows employers in the United States

www.uscis.gov