5 ms·

It's about time. Say what you will about Trump's other policies, but it's high time someone took an ax to the H-1B program. The level of abuse I've witnessed f

It's about time. Say what you will about Trump's other policies, but it's high time someone took an ax to the H-1B program. The level of abuse I've witnessed from it over the years is heinous; foreign workers essentially working as indentured servants, with the only beneficiaries being corporations using their cheap labor and the foreign consultancy firms that farm them out. I'll be interested to see what changes get made to the program to move it back towards its intended purpose.

forgetsusername 10y ago
>Say what you will about Trump's other policies, but it's high time someone took an ax to the H-1B program. He's just getting started. I'm sure we'll see some doozies; hopefully nothing tragic. But let's not pretend that everything Trump does or will do is stupid or evil, and give him credit when appropriate.
beachstartup 10y ago
this culture of abusing your workers spills out into the US workforce as well. i've known people (us citizens) who have had to send lawyer letters to get their invoices paid by these consultancy firms, who aren't used to getting pushback from their servants. sometimes in the tens of thousands of dollars for high end work. of course the bad behavior stops immediately when they get a nice little letter with an american law firm's name at the top of it. they're scumbags.
- nulldevz 10y ago
  Yeah ... these measures don't really address the underlying issue of scumbag executives. They're just going to find another way to pay for cheap labor, e.g., shifting revenue to countries with cheap labor. This move may actually expedite a major shift of software engineering to other countries. In turn, it could help improve other countries' infrastructure creating a positive feedback loop for outsourcing. Unintended consequences caused by government regulation.
  - coredog64 10y ago
    Actual offshoring is a lot more difficult to manage than H1B candidates who sit in your office. For the former, the big names are well versed in churning out billable hours regardless of actual work performed. The 11-12 hour time difference can sometimes be a boon, but more often than not leads to both your remote and local employees being unhappy. Local employees because they're asked to stay late or come in early, and remote employees because access to transit is more difficult if only US business hours are an option.
sulam 10y ago
This is a bill introduced by a California Democrat, fwiw. I suspect most Republicans want nothing to do with it, so it will never see the light of day.
- SirensOfTitan 10y ago
  This is a planned executive order, where are you getting this is a bill introduced by a California Democrat?
  - rrauenza 10y ago
    There was another post today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13529792 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13529792
  - alextheparrot 10y ago
    There is a linked, related article within this article released 10 days ago [1]. The article linked in this post is about multiple things, noting that Trump is drafting an order concerning H-1B visas along with 3 separate bills that have or are expected to enter the legislature. The bills were or will be introduced by the following (from [1]): 1) Republican from Iowa, Democrat from Illinois 2) Republican from California 3) Democrat from California I believe the parent may have cherry-picked, but is not completely incorrect. [1] http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/21/technology/h1b-reform-bill-grassley-durbin/index.html?iid=EL http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/21/technology/h1b-reform-bill-g...
  - r00fus 10y ago
    It's a prominent link in the article: Related: Bipartisan bill aims to reform H1-B visa system. I doubt Trump can use executive order to change the H1B system like he did for his immigration order. If he does, he can expect a constitutional crisis soon.

forgetsusername 10y ago

>Say what you will about Trump's other policies, but it's high time someone took an ax to the H-1B program. He's just getting started. I'm sure we'll see some doozies; hopefully nothing tragic. But let's not pretend that everything Trump does or will do is stupid or evil, and give him credit when appropriate.

beachstartup 10y ago

this culture of abusing your workers spills out into the US workforce as well. i've known people (us citizens) who have had to send lawyer letters to get their invoices paid by these consultancy firms, who aren't used to getting pushback from their servants. sometimes in the tens of thousands of dollars for high end work. of course the bad behavior stops immediately when they get a nice little letter with an american law firm's name at the top of it. they're scumbags.

nulldevz 10y ago
Yeah ... these measures don't really address the underlying issue of scumbag executives. They're just going to find another way to pay for cheap labor, e.g., shifting revenue to countries with cheap labor. This move may actually expedite a major shift of software engineering to other countries. In turn, it could help improve other countries' infrastructure creating a positive feedback loop for outsourcing. Unintended consequences caused by government regulation.
- coredog64 10y ago
  Actual offshoring is a lot more difficult to manage than H1B candidates who sit in your office. For the former, the big names are well versed in churning out billable hours regardless of actual work performed. The 11-12 hour time difference can sometimes be a boon, but more often than not leads to both your remote and local employees being unhappy. Local employees because they're asked to stay late or come in early, and remote employees because access to transit is more difficult if only US business hours are an option.

sulam 10y ago

This is a bill introduced by a California Democrat, fwiw. I suspect most Republicans want nothing to do with it, so it will never see the light of day.

SirensOfTitan 10y ago
This is a planned executive order, where are you getting this is a bill introduced by a California Democrat?
- rrauenza 10y ago
  There was another post today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13529792 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13529792
- alextheparrot 10y ago
  There is a linked, related article within this article released 10 days ago [1]. The article linked in this post is about multiple things, noting that Trump is drafting an order concerning H-1B visas along with 3 separate bills that have or are expected to enter the legislature. The bills were or will be introduced by the following (from [1]): 1) Republican from Iowa, Democrat from Illinois 2) Republican from California 3) Democrat from California I believe the parent may have cherry-picked, but is not completely incorrect. [1] http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/21/technology/h1b-reform-bill-grassley-durbin/index.html?iid=EL http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/21/technology/h1b-reform-bill-g...
- r00fus 10y ago
  It's a prominent link in the article: Related: Bipartisan bill aims to reform H1-B visa system. I doubt Trump can use executive order to change the H1B system like he did for his immigration order. If he does, he can expect a constitutional crisis soon.