Confusion follows Trump flip-flop on key immigration issue

Mt. Vernon Register-News ^ | March 10, 2016 | Byron York

[ConservingFreedom]

Donald Trump won the South Carolina primary across the board, but he did particularly well with the 10 percent of voters who named immigration as the nation's top issue. In addition, some who named other issues -- the economy, national security -- were undoubtedly also concerned about immigration, and Trump's hard line likely helped him with them, too.

Which is why people who follow immigration closely were stunned Thursday night when Trump, at the Fox News debate here in Detroit, announced that he has changed his position on one key element of the immigration debate -- the use of H-1B visas to bring skilled foreign workers into the United States.

In the distant past -- say, yesterday -- Trump focused on abuses in the system, in which some big companies have been caught using H-1Bs to bring in foreign workers, force American employees to train their own replacements, and then pay the foreign worker less than the American had made -- all to do mostly routine jobs in the tech industry.

At his recent rally in Alabama -- the one in which Trump received the endorsement of Sen. Jeff Sessions, Congress' strongest voice against expanding the troubled H-1B program -- Trump also won the endorsement of some American workers who were victims of H-1B abuse at Disney.

"The fact is that Americans are losing their jobs to foreigners," one of the laid-off workers told the crowd. "I believe Mr. Trump is for Americans first."

In Detroit, Fox News' Megyn Kelly pointed out that Trump's campaign website has a strong statement against increasing the number of H-1Bs, saying it would "decimate American workers," and yet in one debate Trump spoke favorably of the program. "So, which is it?" Kelly asked.

"I'm changing," Trump said. "I'm changing. We need highly skilled people in this country, and if we can't do it, we'll get them in. But, and we do need in Silicon Valley, we absolutely have to have."

"So, we do need highly skilled," Trump continued, "and one of the biggest problems we have is people go to the best colleges. They'll go to Harvard, they'll go to Stanford, they'll go to Wharton, as soon as they're finished they'll get shoved out. They want to stay in this country. They want to stay here desperately, they're not able to stay here. For that purpose, we absolutely have to be able to keep the brain power in this country.

"So you are abandoning the position on your website?" asked Kelly.

"I'm changing it," Trump said, "and I'm softening the position because we have to have talented people in this country."

Trump's turnaround sent a jolt through the group of policy wonks and activists who have opposed Gang of Eight-style comprehensive immigration reform. "I've heard from enough tech workers displaced by H-1Bs that Trump's apparent answer very dispiriting," tweeted the writer Mickey Kaus. "Clarification?"

Mark Krikorian, head of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors reducing levels of immigration into the U.S., was not impressed. "(Trump) made clear in October he didn't believe what's in his immigration paper about skilled immigration," Krikorian told me by email after the debate, "and at the last debate he showed he buys the 'jobs Americans won't do' line on unskilled workers too."

"So will he 'clarify' his 'I'm softening' comment tomorrow, like he did after the October debate?" Krikorian continued. "His embrace of foreign tech workers is particularly shocking given that just days ago he featured American workers replaced by Disney at one of his rallies."

Even as Krikorian was typing his email to me, Trump was at work doing just what Krikorian predicted. "Megyn Kelly asked about highly skilled immigration," Trump said in a clarification statement sent to reporters about an hour after the debate ended. "The H-1B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration: these are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay. I remain totally committed to eliminating rampant, widespread H-1B abuse and ending outrageous practices such as those that occurred at Disney in Florida when Americans were forced to train their foreign replacements. I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program. No exceptions."

It would be hard to imagine a quicker or more complete flip-flop. [...]

[ConservingFreedom]

TRUMP - “The H-1B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration

So what WAS he talking about, if not H-1B, when he said in last week's debate: "I'm changing it, and I'm softening the position"? What's his new position and how was his old position different? Will he ever tell us?

I can’t help you beyond providing his unedited position.

Which is no help - but thanks for trying.

[pierrem15]

Learn the facts.

I'm not sure Trump was referring to H1B's (which are temporary, with a maximum of six years).

I don't want -any- immigration until we get the current mess fixed (which would include working through the multi-year backlog of pending green card applications).

Still, allowing in the truly highly skilled (those with a PhD comparable to a US PhD) strikes me as much better than the wholesale American worker replacement programs known as H1B and H2B.

[pierrem15]

Cruz's response is so complex that it would either never be enacted; or, which is more likely, K Street would insert so many loopholes that it would amount to no change at all or even an easing of H1B restrictions.

After all, K Street wrote the existing law so that if the employer is found to have falsified the H1B application, the visa cannot be revoked if the H1B visa holder is paid a minimum of $65K.

The much simpler solution is to wipe the slate clean and start over with a completely new immigration act.

Actually, I wouldn't mind simply going back to the 1929 Act.

[ConservingFreedom]

Cruz's response is so complex

Doesn't look all that complex to me - and the real point is that he fully supports much tighter restrictions. (I'd also be on board with wiping the slate clean as you suggest.)

[CottonBall]

Cruz wanted to increase H1Bs by 500%. Trump wants to bring them in only where there is a need.

[CottonBall]

He already said they get back in line BEHIND those already there and have to meet whatever the requirements are.

You are pretending he never said that.

[ConservingFreedom]

Cruz wanted to increase H1Bs by 500%.

Not any more. From https://www.tedcruz.org/cruz-immigration-plan/:

Amend the H-1B visa program to fulfill its original purpose: Work with Congress to pass reform legislation for the H-1B visa program that will:

• Create an advanced degree requirement: Only individuals with advanced degrees in their respective fields may be brought to the United States with an H-1B visa. And preference will be given to those with advanced degrees from American universities.
• Create a "layoff cool-off" period for all H-1B visa applications: Companies must wait one or two years between laying off a worker and bringing in any H-1B foreign workers to ensure that the program is not used to displace American workers.
• Establish accreditation or recognition requirements for overseas schools: The recent lack of federal oversight of the H-1B visa program has fueled a cottage industry of diploma mills. Foreign academic institutions must meet minimum accreditation standards at least as stringent as those imposed on American universities in order to qualify for the advanced-degree requirement.
• Require sworn affidavits describing domestic hiring efforts: Companies will provide sworn statements and documentation that detail their efforts to hire Americans before requesting foreign workers through the H-1B visa program. Individuals who make false statements in these affidavits will be subject to perjury charges.
• Suspend companies from H-1B visa eligibility for failure to help foreign workers obtain green cards: Many companies misuse the H-1B visa program to train foreign workers that they intend to send back overseas to compete with America. The law must impose additional requirements on employers to pursue Legal Permanent Resident status on behalf of their H-1B visa-based foreign workers, or risk loss of access to the program.

"Ted Cruz, Jeff Sessions Roll Out Antidote To Broken H-1B Program: American Jobs First Act" - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3371276/posts

"Ted Cruz Explains why His Position on H-1B Visas Has Changed" - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3376485/posts

[combat_boots]

But it isn’t just the H1B program. There are a number of designations now. And the anchor babies resulting from them.

[dirtboy]

No, it wasn’t. Read up on the program’s actual requirements.

[DoodleDawg]

No, it wasn’t. Read up on the program’s actual requirements.

I have. What was the violation?

[CottonBall]

“So we have too many science (S) and math (M) folks - none of whom can do engineering or tech?”

Of course not.

Math courses are completely different than engineering courses. The different engineering disciplines aren’t interchangeable either. I have a BS in metallurgical engineering. Nobody would hire me to do electrical engineering. Nor would I want to even try.

I can’t believe you actually had to ask that. Would you go to an orthopedic surgeon if you had heart trouble?

[CottonBall]

Then Cruz flipped.

[ConservingFreedom]

From Trump's link: "Engineering has the highest rate at which graduates move into STEM occupations, but even here the supply is over 50% higher than the demand. IT, the industry most vocal about its inability to find enough workers, hires only two-thirds of each year’s graduating class of bachelor’s degree computer scientists. "

[dirtboy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/26/us/lawsuit-claims-disney-colluded-to-replace-us-workers-with-immigrants.html?_r=0

Employers are required to declare to the Department of Labor that hiring foreigners on the visas “will not adversely affect the working conditions of U.S. workers similarly employed.”

[ConservingFreedom]

Then Cruz flipped.

Still hasn't come close to Trump's taking three positions in 24 hours (before last week's debate, at the debate, and the next morning).

[Toespi]

Why is it when a Trump supporter is asked a question they get nasty? You can use Trumps dumbing down of the term but it is touchback, plain and simple.

[Pajamajan]

At the debate Trump said he would get rid of the EPA. In Iowa he promised to use the EPA to enforce higher Ethanol standards than what Obama's.

In Iowa he said lands in the West should be controlled by the Feds. In Nevada he said he knew nothing about it.

If anyone is actually trying to get informed about issues- The only consistent thing about Trump, is that he's inconsistent.

[Pajamajan]

enforce higher Ethanol standards than what Obama’s= enforce higher Ethanol standards than Obama’s.

[DoodleDawg]

Employers are required to declare to the Department of Labor that hiring foreigners on the visas “will not adversely affect the working conditions of U.S. workers similarly employed.”

Disney has outsourced the IT functions. Disney didn't hire the foreigners, they are employees of the outsourcing company. Disney is laying off its own people and not replacing them with anyone. And I'm sure the outsourcing company didn't displace any U.S. workers it might have had when it brought the H-1Bs in from India for the turnover. All nice and legal under the laws currently in place.

[amihow]

I am a hardliner on any type of immigration in mumbers too large even “Ph.D” workers.

These types tend to be intelligent and speak English. But they do not understand English or its nuances. They are dangerous in the medical profession and I speak from much personal experience.

No more. We need to educate our own