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Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end?
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Trump brought this up early on and from what I'm reading, a change to the H1B Visa program has bi-partisan support.

AP Explains: Behind the visa program targeted by Trump

Even when directly confronted Obama doesn't seem to get it. Check out the video of a Q&A from a Google chat with Obama taking a direct question from the wife of an unemployed American semi conductor engineer... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_CMXLBd17k

Yes, tech companies have given him money but why continue to persist in the 2nd term.

Even on his way out he's fighting against changes.... Obama Defends H1B Workers Against Trump’s Visa Plans

For those unaware, the minimum salary for an H1B Visa worker when the program started in 1989 was $60k which was designed to bring highly compensated folks to the US for jobs there weren't enough Americans to fill. It's freaking still $60k and Americans want those jobs!

This seems like low hanging fruit. An easy win. Heck, he could have used it as a bargaining chip for something else the Pubs wouldn't let him have.

What am I missing (besides past tech campaign $ and future Dem votes)? There must be more.
Last edited by: walnutcreek tri: Apr 18, 17 15:03
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [walnutcreek tri] [ In reply to ]
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Business wants H-1's. It keeps salaries lower. I am curious how strong that bipartisan support for change to the program is. There is also bipartisan support for campaign contributions from business.

Obama was often accused of being a socialist. If he was, he was a pretty crappy one.

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
Last edited by: j p o: Apr 18, 17 14:18
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [walnutcreek tri] [ In reply to ]
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As someone who hires engineers regularly, I don't see very many American's applying. I've said it before, I'll say it again...you either bring the Indian engineers here or you move the job to India...take your choice. There are not enough American engineers to meet the needs here. The engineers I've hired out of ASU tell me the MSEE program is 100% foreign Indian students, and that is what I see from the resumes I receive as well.

And really, why should you care whether Billy Bob gets the job or Pankaj? They both live and spend their money here in the US.
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [walnutcreek tri] [ In reply to ]
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Why do you hate the free market?
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [walnutcreek tri] [ In reply to ]
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walnutcreek tri wrote:
Trump brought this up early on and from what I'm reading, a change to the H1B Visa program has bi-partisan support.

AP Explains: Behind the visa program targeted by Trump

Even when directly confronted Obama doesn't seem to get it. Check out the video of a Q&A from a Google chat with Obama taking a direct question from the wife of an unemployed American semi conductor engineer... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_CMXLBd17k

Yes, tech companies have given him money but why continue to persist in the 2nd term.

Even on his way out he's fighting against changes.... Obama Defends H1B Workers Against Trump’s Visa Plans

For those unaware, the minimum salary for an H1B Visa worker when the program started in 1989 was $60k which was designed to bring highly compensated folks to the US for jobs there weren't enough Americans to fill. It's freaking still $60k and Americans want those jobs!

This seems like low hanging fruit. An easy win. Heck, he could have used it as a bargaining chip for something else the Pubs wouldn't let him have.

What am I missing (besides past tech campaign $ and future Dem votes)? There must be more.

Over the next decade, Obama will rake in $200 million. A large part of that money will come from businesses in the form of speaking fees. That is the payoff for promoting the interests of fat cats over American workers.
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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j p o wrote:
Business wants H-1's. It keeps salaries lower. I am curious how strong that bipartisan support for change to the program is. There is also bipartisan support for campaign contributions from business.

Obama was often accused of being a socialist. If he was, he was a pretty crappy one.
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hmmmm, could be Obama spreading high paying US jobs to as many people of the world as possible. Trump is playing the America first angle, and I hope he creates change, though it might get back to our kids not wanting to take difficult programs to get good jobs. If that's where it ends up being, then that's fine too. At least all the realities will be on the table for folks to deal with.
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [walnutcreek tri] [ In reply to ]
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Programmers don't want programming jobs for 60K. Guys want 100K, no pressure, work from 9-3 and lots of other perks.

----
Don't hold back
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [walnutcreek tri] [ In reply to ]
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Support for the H1B seems like a no brainer. Gets smart, educated people to come to the US and work here with many eventually becoming citizens.

Oh wait, now I see why Trump would oppose it.
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [Arch Stanton] [ In reply to ]
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Arch Stanton wrote:
walnutcreek tri wrote:
Trump brought this up early on and from what I'm reading, a change to the H1B Visa program has bi-partisan support.

AP Explains: Behind the visa program targeted by Trump

Even when directly confronted Obama doesn't seem to get it. Check out the video of a Q&A from a Google chat with Obama taking a direct question from the wife of an unemployed American semi conductor engineer... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_CMXLBd17k

Yes, tech companies have given him money but why continue to persist in the 2nd term.

Even on his way out he's fighting against changes.... Obama Defends H1B Workers Against Trump’s Visa Plans

For those unaware, the minimum salary for an H1B Visa worker when the program started in 1989 was $60k which was designed to bring highly compensated folks to the US for jobs there weren't enough Americans to fill. It's freaking still $60k and Americans want those jobs!

This seems like low hanging fruit. An easy win. Heck, he could have used it as a bargaining chip for something else the Pubs wouldn't let him have.

What am I missing (besides past tech campaign $ and future Dem votes)? There must be more.


Over the next decade, Obama will rake in $200 million. A large part of that money will come from businesses in the form of speaking fees. That is the payoff for promoting the interests of fat cats over American workers.

That's going to seem like chump change when Trump gets to it. Probably already, we just don't know it yet.
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [Arch Stanton] [ In reply to ]
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... or maybe he just opposes protectionism? Used to be a time when Reagan conservatives were the most adamant proponents of free trade. Basic support for H1-B visas and global trade were among the only core principles that Dems and Reps could agree on since Clinton swung to the right (mid-90's). Hanging on to it is probably due to the fact that there are very few recent engineering graduates who complain about it at all (notwithstanding that one complainer from 5 years ago, unemployment for college graduates is now at ~2.5%). His constituency of urban professionals wasn't harmed by the policy (in fact, business boomed), and he was blind to anti-immigration anger building among folks left behind (not really due to H1-B policies, but a perfectly good scapegoat).
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [iO4] [ In reply to ]
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iO4 wrote:
Programmers don't want programming jobs for 60K. Guys want 100K, no pressure, work from 9-3 and lots of other perks.

Perhaps they aren't actually 60k jobs if you remove the competition from under market price H1's.

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [Arch Stanton] [ In reply to ]
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And for a guy who said global warming is a big problem he sure is burning alot of jet fuel.

Arch Stanton wrote:
walnutcreek tri wrote:
Trump brought this up early on and from what I'm reading, a change to the H1B Visa program has bi-partisan support.

AP Explains: Behind the visa program targeted by Trump

Even when directly confronted Obama doesn't seem to get it. Check out the video of a Q&A from a Google chat with Obama taking a direct question from the wife of an unemployed American semi conductor engineer... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_CMXLBd17k

Yes, tech companies have given him money but why continue to persist in the 2nd term.

Even on his way out he's fighting against changes.... Obama Defends H1B Workers Against Trump’s Visa Plans

For those unaware, the minimum salary for an H1B Visa worker when the program started in 1989 was $60k which was designed to bring highly compensated folks to the US for jobs there weren't enough Americans to fill. It's freaking still $60k and Americans want those jobs!

This seems like low hanging fruit. An easy win. Heck, he could have used it as a bargaining chip for something else the Pubs wouldn't let him have.

What am I missing (besides past tech campaign $ and future Dem votes)? There must be more.


Over the next decade, Obama will rake in $200 million. A large part of that money will come from businesses in the form of speaking fees. That is the payoff for promoting the interests of fat cats over American workers.

They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [Dapper Dan] [ In reply to ]
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Dapper Dan wrote:
As someone who hires engineers regularly, I don't see very many American's applying. I've said it before, I'll say it again...you either bring the Indian engineers here or you move the job to India...take your choice. There are not enough American engineers to meet the needs here. The engineers I've hired out of ASU tell me the MSEE program is 100% foreign Indian students, and that is what I see from the resumes I receive as well.

And really, why should you care whether Billy Bob gets the job or Pankaj? They both live and spend their money here in the US.

That's my experience as well recruiting for my lab and a bunch of other large health IT projects. They're all Indian or Chinese. They all work really hard too. The few times people hire American workers, they're often not willing to do the work. Software engineering and IT are not 8h day jobs. Sometimes, you code for 16h straight, then you relax.

If you put a lock on the H1-B visa, companies will just send the programming jobs overseas, except for those with stringent security issues like GD.
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [Francois] [ In reply to ]
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I don't know what kind of visas grad students are on, but I would think cracking down on them would put a major crimp in research labs around the country. At least in my experience they are heavily populated with Indians, Chinese, Tiawanese, etc. Finding interested Americans was hard in the labs I was in.
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [ThisIsIt] [ In reply to ]
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Depends on whether they are graduate students, post-doc etc. So they can be on an F1, or J1. If you remove these, labs will be empty.
You won't have to worry about cutting $6B of the NIH funding, there will be no one to operate the labs.
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [Francois] [ In reply to ]
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Francois wrote:
Dapper Dan wrote:
As someone who hires engineers regularly, I don't see very many American's applying. I've said it before, I'll say it again...you either bring the Indian engineers here or you move the job to India...take your choice. There are not enough American engineers to meet the needs here. The engineers I've hired out of ASU tell me the MSEE program is 100% foreign Indian students, and that is what I see from the resumes I receive as well.

And really, why should you care whether Billy Bob gets the job or Pankaj? They both live and spend their money here in the US.


That's my experience as well recruiting for my lab and a bunch of other large health IT projects. They're all Indian or Chinese. They all work really hard too. The few times people hire American workers, they're often not willing to do the work. Software engineering and IT are not 8h day jobs. Sometimes, you code for 16h straight, then you relax.

If you put a lock on the H1-B visa, companies will just send the programming jobs overseas, except for those with stringent security issues like GD.

This is my experience, also. I recruit PhD Level Chemists for the chemical industry. Super high % of folks from India or Asia. Jobs available here, but no US workers to fill them.
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [satchmo] [ In reply to ]
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''This is my experience, also. I recruit PhD Level Chemists for the chemical industry. Super high % of folks from India or Asia. Jobs available here, but no US workers to fill them. ''


Not just jobs, spots in tech colleges also. About 20 years a go my sister-in-law was a dean a NJIT in Newark NJ. She told me that to get the kind of students they wanted, they had to recruit overseas.


---------------------------
''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [Francois] [ In reply to ]
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Francois wrote:
Depends on whether they are graduate students, post-doc etc. So they can be on an F1, or J1. If you remove these, labs will be empty.
You won't have to worry about cutting $6B of the NIH funding, there will be no one to operate the labs.

It's rarely been the intent of politicians to use common sense when establishing policy. They are typically short-sighted and looking for the immediate gratification and not the long term consequences.

_____
TEAM HD
Each day is what you make of it so make it the best day possible.
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [TheRef65] [ In reply to ]
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TheRef65 wrote:
Francois wrote:
Depends on whether they are graduate students, post-doc etc. So they can be on an F1, or J1. If you remove these, labs will be empty.
You won't have to worry about cutting $6B of the NIH funding, there will be no one to operate the labs.


It's rarely been the intent of politicians to use common sense when establishing policy. They are typically short-sighted and looking for the immediate gratification and not the long term consequences.

Well hell. This is the answer to every political topic on the LR.

Common sense and logic are not allowed where legislation is made.
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [Francois] [ In reply to ]
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Francois wrote:
Depends on whether they are graduate students, post-doc etc. So they can be on an F1, or J1. If you remove these, labs will be empty.
You won't have to worry about cutting $6B of the NIH funding, there will be no one to operate the labs.

I work for a company that has a lot of J1 post docs. My first thought is yes the labs will be empty, but at the same time I wonder, why would any american want to work in these labs?

Go to school for a PhD putting you in massive debt, then work in a lab that pays you about $50k a year with no job security? I'd think to continue the current advancements in science the NIH budget will need to be increased, at least increase the stipend rates.

I assume industry labs at pharmaceutical companies pay a lot more then the NIH stipend rates.
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [AndysStrongAle] [ In reply to ]
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That's true. Actually, NIH just increased stipends for postdocs, but it's still pretty low.
https://grants.nih.gov/...s/NOT-OD-16-134.html
And then I see a lot of postdocs treated poorly...If I graduated now, I'd probably go straight to industry rather than get a crappy postdoc position
with faculty positions that are increasingly competitive, to compete for funding that's also even more competitive...
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [Francois] [ In reply to ]
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I never worked in a lab, I do some of the HR work. But from what I heard the post docs pretty much do bitch work and the PI gets all of the credit. The post docs just hope one day to get an R01.

I have also heard some of our labs, very few people actually speak English and the lab only speaks Chinese, Indian or whatever.
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [AndysStrongAle] [ In reply to ]
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Well, I wouldn't judge so harshly. The PIs do not get all the credit. Postdocs get publications out etc. and work (or should be working) to get a K01 or K07 etc.
That's really what they are hired to do and for the most part, they are not ready to be independent researchers at this stage, develop their own hypotheses, experimental
design etc.
At the postdoc level there is zero chance to get an R01. You're just not ready yet. Heck in most schools at the assistant professor level, it's pretty uncommon too.

As for the language, if everyone in my lab was French, we'd all be speaking French. When people united by a common language hang out together, that's pretty normal.
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [Francois] [ In reply to ]
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k, good to know. Again I'm not the lab person, I just used to do the finances and now work in the HR area. I have heard that the HR recruiters basically hear the post-doc applicants saying "I don't care if I'm paid, I'll pay you! I just want to work under Dr. So and so"

That is what I thought with the R01 after I wrote that post (its the only grant type I remember). Understanding some of that stuff was a previous life.
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Re: Why was Obama so pro H1B Visa right to the end? [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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j p o wrote:
Business wants H-1's. It keeps salaries lower.

Not true for all H1Bs. I got my masters from a top business school here in the USA, got a job offer before I graduated and got an H1B visa. And I can tell you that my initial base salary after graduation was in the low 6 figures and I was in my mid 20s. While some companies may cheat through this program, there are a lot of companies that use H1Bs to attract top international talent.

2x Deca-Ironman World Cup (10 Ironmans in 10 days), 2x Quintuple Ironman World Cup (5 Ironmans in 5 days), Ultraman, Ultra Marathoner, and I once did an Ironman.
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