Trump's next executive order draft to target tech companies, hit work visa programs

President Donald Trump's next target in his administration's immigration policy will focus on what Silicon Valley fears most: the work-visa programs that tech companies rely on to hire tens of thousands of workers each year, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The executive order is still a draft, according to the report, but if enacted, it could mean major overhauls in the way tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon recruit their employees. Under the order, companies would have to prioritize hiring American workers, and if they must hire foreign workers, then they must prioritize the most highly compensated, according to the report.

"Our country's immigration policies should be designed and implemented to serve, first and foremost, the U.S. national interest," the draft says, according to a copy obtained by Bloomberg.

Trump's next executive order draft to target tech companies, hit work visa programs

This could really backfire. I believe the executive order described in the article linked to above is based on a flawed assumption. The assumption is that there are just as many qualified people to take the positions under consideration within the U.S. as there are outside of the U.S.

What is the probability that's the case? If a company can hire the best people out of most of the entire population of the world, wouldn't you expect that they could find better applicants than if they're limited to finding people only from within the United States?

I see the executive order possibly being a disaster. Less talented employees could lead to less profits which could mean lower stock prices. That could essentially force the affected companies to go abroad.

a reply to: Profusion

The thing with tech giants is this.

They can hire people to work remotely from pretty much anywhere on the planet. Apple for example, can facetime their employees from anywhere. They could have a meeting with everyone on a given part of their staff, from anywhere on the globe, without ever having to be on the same continent.

All it will mean, is that those employees will not be able to visit the US. It does not mean that they will be unable to work for those companies. Leaders in these companies, will simply hire the same people, to do largely the same work, but at a distance. For those who need to be up close to a design in order to manipulate hardware... well, there are answers to that too, but they involve robotics and haptics, and could be a little costly...

a reply to: Profusion

I disagree.

These companies outsource jobs for one simple reason.

Less costs.

Cheap labor to run customer service. Cheap labor to produce their products. No unions to work with.

I don't fault the companies for it. They are in business to make money.

But we need to look out for Americans first.

They will just have to weigh the cost/benefits of doing business in the world's biggest market for their goods and services.

I read on EPI.ORG that 28% of the IT workforce for software development is composed on non-citizens. Speaking from experience H1B visas are all about cost cutting. It has nothing to do with finding talent. It's all about hiring cheaper workers.

a reply to: Profusion

You think its bad to try and put a stop to things like this:

The foreign workers that replaced the hundreds of us here in Orlando, and Anaheim, were just flown in weeks before,” former Disney IT employee Leo Perrero told the FOX Business Network’s Stuart Varney.

“They came in on a visa called the H1-B visa, I don’t know exactly what they pay, however the bulk of these people that applied for this visa are at the very lowest pay scale out of the four. They all claim to come in on this visa because they are better than Americans, yet they come in on the lowest pay scales.

They aren't doing it because of more qualified workers.

Perrero and 250 other workers were laid off toward the end of 2014. To make matters worse, Perrero had to train his replacement, an immigrant from India.

Perrero and his 53-year-old coworker, Dena Moore, have since sued Disney and two global consulting companies, HCL and Cognizant, for allegedly “breaking the law” by replacing American workers with immigrants who will do the job for less money. Both Perrero and Moore say they were forced to train their foreign replacements in exchange for severance pay.

Sorry OP - it's about driving down wages and working conditions not hiring the best workers.

Very few of these visas are issued to people from Japan or other high wage areas.

If there is a shortage of American workers, it would cause the employers to do things like retrain older workers (yes, many US software workers are unemployed once they hit middle age). Right now, they couldn't care less.

And to the poster who said they can just facetime - yes that's very true. That's why tariffs/tax breaks are needed to reward companies that use American workers. After all, these companies are using American resources to sell their product without providing the tax base from American workers. (One of the few things I agree with Trump on).

That means Apple cannot use cheap labor in China to build computers and phones?

Coming from a 10 year Microsoft Exchange Engineer.

The reason this is happening is because US tech workers are being replaced by Indian workers that take half the pay.

Its not fair. Period.

a reply to: Profusion

This is mostly about the bottom line with these people anyway. But yes they and many others are really using the immigration system as an employment service to serve itself.

a reply to: Daughter2

The correct qualified statement is, "there's a shortage of workers willing to work at fractional sub-standard wages."

a reply to: Profusion
As long as YOU are not the one that lost his job right?

a reply to: watchitburn

Not really. My Filipino friend is considering an offer from Amazon...$80-100k for server admin. I checked average salaries and that's right on par with or slightly above average. So you take that, and also travel costs (provided at company expenses) and that would not be a lower cost.

It's possible that this is a one-off...but not likely.

a reply to: kelbtalfenek

Yes really.

Anyone tired of talking to people that can barely speak English when calling tech support. Id say so.

I wonder why they hire those guys. /sarc

a reply to: Profusion

Doesn`t the U.S. already have something very similar to this, do the words affirmative action ring a bell? how`s that working out?

originally posted by: waggz
a reply to: kelbtalfenek

Yes really.

Anyone tired of talking to people that can barely speak English when calling tech support. Id say so.

I wonder why they hire those guys. /sarc

No, really. There are a great deal of non-Americans who speak better English than some Americans. In fact, the largest English speaking populated country isn't even in the Americas....

a reply to: Profusion

Its about darn time, the abuse that these tech companies have with the H1B visas is outrageous, ban the darn visas too.

We have enough American workers than need those jobs.

The tech companies don't like it, too bad soo sad.

It was their dirty lobbyist that fattened the pockets of those dirty rats in congress that allowed the H1 visas give away to go rampant.



You will hear very soon who the dirty fat rats in congress are when they start screaming about that one.

originally posted by: Profusion

President Donald Trump's next target in his administration's immigration policy will focus on what Silicon Valley fears most: the work-visa programs that tech companies rely on to hire tens of thousands of workers each year, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The executive order is still a draft, according to the report, but if enacted, it could mean major overhauls in the way tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon recruit their employees. Under the order, companies would have to prioritize hiring American workers, and if they must hire foreign workers, then they must prioritize the most highly compensated, according to the report.

"Our country's immigration policies should be designed and implemented to serve, first and foremost, the U.S. national interest," the draft says, according to a copy obtained by Bloomberg.

Trump's next executive order draft to target tech companies, hit work visa programs

This could really backfire. I believe the executive order described in the article linked to above is based on a flawed assumption. The assumption is that there are just as many qualified people to take the positions under consideration within the U.S. as there are outside of the U.S.

What is the probability that's the case? If a company can hire the best people out of most of the entire population of the world, wouldn't you expect that they could find better applicants than if they're limited to finding people only from within the United States?

I see the executive order possibly being a disaster. Less talented employees could lead to less profits which could mean lower stock prices. That could essentially force the affected companies to go abroad.

You're wrong.

Aren't you part of the same crew who wants $15/hr for everyone?

Well stopping the enormous abuses of the H1B program goes a LONG WAY to help increase wages for AMERICANS.