Posted on 03/04/2016 8:32:02 AM PST by ConservingFreedom
Short version: at last night’s debate the topic of H-1B visas* came up. Last night Megyn Kelly asked Donald Trump at the debate how he felt about temporary work visas now. Trump said that he loved them to death, and was softening the position found on his website. Somewhere out in the political wilderness, Senator Jeff Sessions (an H-1B visa restrictionist who is endorsing Trump solely because of Trump’s position on immigration, supposedly) immediately suffered a nosebleed from the psychic shock of this sudden, yet inevitable betrayal**. The Trump campaign had to go out and send around an email saying, No, really, forget that Trump said that. Please, please, please, forget that Trump said that. Also: Trump can’t tell the difference between a H-1B and a H-2B visa.
For the longer story? Well, let’s go to the transcripts.
KELLY: Mr. Trump, your campaign website to this day argues that more visas for highly skilled workers would, quote, “decimate American workers”. However, at the CNBC debate, you spoke enthusiastically in favor of these visas. So, which is it?
TRUMP: I’m changing. 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, 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.
KELLY: So you abandoning the position on your website…
TRUMP: … I’m changing it, and I’m softening the position because we have to have talented people in this country.
If you’re taking a strong stance on ending or at least cutting back the H-1B program – like, say, Mark Krikorian of National Review, or Michelle Malkin – this position is appalling. I want to be really careful right now, because I am of course a pro-immigration squish; but if I understand Mark Krikorian’s position here he feels that Trump is simply talking tough about immigration to please his own base, and is using the H-1B issue to signal to hypothetical*** general election donors that Trump’s not actually really into all this immigration hawk stuff. Which last part I’ll agree with, for reasons that I’ll get into later.
At any rate, Trump’s long-suffering official He Didn’t Mean It Squad had to play cleanup again:
Megyn Kelly asked about highly-skilled immigration. The H-1B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration…
– And we’ll stop there because when there are two flat-out lies in the first two sentences of your press release, there’s no point to keep going, is there? Look at the transcript again. Megyn Kelly didn’t ask about immigration. She asked about work visas. As for the high-skilled part – look, H-1B visas are for people with college degrees. One of the major criticisms of the H-1B program is that it supposedly takes away STEM jobs from Americans with equivalent skills.
Which means that the aforementioned press release shows that neither Donald Trump nor his staff knows the difference between a H-1B visa and a H-2B visa. You see, H-2B visas are for low-skill temporary work. And Donald Trump knows this, certainly, because he still uses them all the time for his hotels. Including, interestingly, in Florida. And why does Trump use H-2B visas? Well, let’s go to the transcript yet again, because Marco Rubio was able to explain the entire thing succinctly:
RUBIO: … And, here’s why he does it this way, let me explain why he (INAUDIBLE) H2-B…
TRUMP: … Wrong…
RUBIO: … Because when you bring them in this way, when you bring someone in on one of these visas they can’t go work for anybody else. They either work for you or they have to go back home. You basically have them captive, so you don’t have to worry about competing for higher wages with another hotel down the street. And, that’s why you bring workers from abroad.
Note that Marco Rubio knows exactly what a H-2B visa is. And why Donald Trump uses them (because H-1Bs and H-2Bs give companies a lot of leverage over the foreigners that they’ve hired). And this is part and parcel of the reason why some immigration hawks are a little steamed right now at Trump. Nobody likes being flat-out lied to, particularly when it’s being done in this contemptuous a fashion.
And if Trump is lying about this, it’s for certain that he’s lying about building a wall. Which you hopefully already knew, anyway. If you didn’t, well… he’s not building a wall.
Moe Lane
*For those who are not familiar with them – lucky, lucky you – H-1B visas are work visas issued to non-immigrants in specific occupations. These visas are tied to a specific job and employer, and their existence and use are a… definite part of our current robust and vigorous debate over immigration policy.
**Not really. I’m sure that he felt suddenly sick and confused, though.
***A bit more hypothetical now than before the debate, might I add. And the Trump campaign agrees with me, given how quickly they leaped to smother the fire with their own bodies.
I back whoever gets to 1237 delegates first.
Cruz could pick up western states like AR and CA if Trump continues to retreat on his positions.
OH YEAH!!!! well for your information we are rearranging the Musical Excuse chairs at this very moment. We just can't remember which excuse goes in which chair.../s
Meanwhile on the good ship Trumptianic:
Hey YUGY....hurry up before Don speaks again, will someone shut him up we are exhausted just trying to keep up with his flips, we're running out of excuse chairs./s
Now some of his supporters are beginning to sound like spouses who can’t believe their mate would cheat on them...
There was an article posted yesterday or the day before by some pundit who said Trump was going to win, and so it is our job to "support him and make him the best candidate he can be." I'm someone who may abstain rather than pull the lever for him in November, but the last part of that really made me think.
I think Trump's a guy who hasn't given all that much thought to actual policy in most cases. He's just kind of going by his gut. So I think in many cases, he's an incomplete candidate. It's why he waffles on so many issues.
So maybe part of our job is to beat the hell out of him on issues where he is wrong so as to make him the best candidate he can be. Maybe if those of us who don't like him keep fighting on these points, he'll come around on some of it so that he actually will be a candidate we can support in November.
He's good enough on his feet that I think he'll be able to defend the evolutions in his positions against Hillary's accusations. But I would really like to see him evolve to being right on more of the issues where he is currently wrong.
The south Florida "snowbird Season" is from October to March. It's not just Trump's hotel, but ALL the hotels along the Treasure Coast region of South Florida, that are drawing on the local population for low-skilled seasonal temporary labor. Also, that area is heavily populated with retirees, so hospitality labor is not abundant for the ramp-up.
-PJ
This is an important discussion.
Most politicians who have tried to campaign on *illegal* immigration have tried to take the sting out of it by promoting themselves as highly in favor of expanded *legal* immigration. I see a lot of the political talk about H1b in that light. They don’t want to be accused of being anti-immigrant, so they talk about making it easier to immigrate and they talk about bringing in the best and the brightest via H1b.
The problem with that is that half the country is out of work. And the problem is that companies are using H1b quite openly to replace American workers. Immigration policy should serve the interests of citizens... and it almost never has.
At the beginning Cruz was too easy on H1b, and that was one of the things I had against him. He has since tightened up his policy and his current policy is pretty good.
Trump’s strong selling point has been his position on the border, but his stance on H1b is weak. He needs to clarify it and tighten it up. I understand what he is saying, he wants to keep people with advanced degrees who are studying in US universities, but that isn’t how the program has been used in the past. I have worked with a lot of H1b’s in the past, most of them good people, but I know how you get around the requirement to hire Americans first.
We need to have this discussion and Trump has do what Cruz has had to do, which is to tighten up his policy in the light of how it is used in real life. I would like to hear both of them talking about this very issue more. No, Silicon Valley doesn’t need to expand the use of H1b’s when there are Americans who would love to take those jobs.
And there's an inalienable natural right to cheap snowbirding? It's vital to our national defense or something?
I think that is a completely fair analysis.
I also think Trump would surround himself with the best minds and advisors.....and he will listen.
What amazes me are the forces that are lining up against him, virtually from every direction.
Some powerful people are scared to death he will dismantle their CON GAME.
Since my goal is to see DC utterly destroyed, I can't help but like Trump even more.
-PJ
Con Artist. Liar. Phony. A sham.
I’m curious to know what he told the New York Times editorial board about this. Is anybody else?
I like it when Cruz talks about what he wants to do, and will do, instead of twisting the facts. That makes him look like a politician.
They ALL are doing it now.
it’s also a BAD optic to “Team UP” with Rubio to bash Trump.
You can’t out mud-wrestle a pig.
I want to agree with you on this. Why don’t people read the positions on the web sites.
There is nothing wrong with the H1B visa program except for the low wages paid to people who are “captive” by the visa. If the companies are forced to pay the prevailing wage, problem is solved.
There is no controlling legal authority. Nobody administers it. It is corrupt stem to stern. It needs to die.
Another post from comedy central.
Donald Trump has been pretty clear for months about his immigration stance. I think he did get a little rattled last night from the constant three prong onslaught. But Luz and Amnestio were also confused. Trump cleared up the confusion today. It pretty much jives with what he had said all along.
I recall more than a few freepers who claimed that they supported Trump over Cruz because Trump was against these visas and Cruz was for them.
But as many Trumpeters say: ‘It worked, that's all that counts. He is winning.’
This is NOTHING compared to the reversals that are coming.
Requirement 4 - You must be paid at least the actual or prevailing wage for your occupation, whichever is higher.
The prevailing wage is determined based on the position in which you will be employed and the geographic location where you will be working (among other factors).
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) maintains a database with applicable current prevailing wage levels based on occupation and work location.
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