Hatch Talking Trump into Going Lightly on Tightening Up on H-1B?

matloff

Thanks to an alert reader of this blog for bringing to my attention the article, “Hatch Doesn’t Expect Trump to Weaken H-1B Visa Program,” in Morning Consult. Some excerpts:

Hatch believes his friendship with Trump — he was one of the first senators, along with Sessions, to endorse his candidacy — means he can convince the president that the data on H-1B visas shows how the program benefits American workers and the U.S. economy.

“You count on me getting that across to him,” Hatch said during Tuesday’s phone interview. “I think I have already, but I’m going to continue until there’s no question he understands me.”

A Hatch aide said last week’s meeting was one of several since the election, and Hatch said there have been other occasions where he presented Trump with data showing how the H-1B visa program promotes industry growth and creates American jobs by filling the high-tech “skills gap.” He pointed to a 2012 study estimating a shortage of more than 220,000 workers in the science, tech, engineering and math fields by 2018…

“While some have expressed some reservations about the impact of high-skilled immigration on American jobs, I believe we can and will be able to make a convincing case for reform,” said Hatch. “The data is on our side.”

Well of course the data is on their side — they paid for it. That study they are referring to is funded by a pro-H-1B advocacy group. I’m told the group pays researchers $50,000 to write a study favorable to the group.

11 thoughts on “Hatch Talking Trump into Going Lightly on Tightening Up on H-1B?”

  1. The H-1B Visa apologists are widely publicizing that Senator Orrin Hatch (who takes considerable funds from “cheap labor” advocates) is supposed to prevent any meaningful change in H-1B Visa policy. This analysis neglects that there are some powerful and influential political leaders who want meaningful changes to protect American citizens.

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    • ” Senator Orrin Hatch (who takes considerable funds from “cheap labor” advocates) ”

      Follow the money folks. Dr Gene nailed the key phrase.

      Wish all the Utah and Mormon IT folk would call his office and let Hatch and his staff know how it feels to lose jobs or pay due to his support for H-1B visas.

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  2. Perhaps Hatch needs to look at the government data that shows the total nonfarm numbers from 1939 till present?

    Then we should ask him to show us the jobs that have been created on that chart since the high point we hit in 2007 before this recession.

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  3. I do not understand why the US has to be like the bully in the marble game who has to have all the biggest and the prettiest marbles leaving the damaged and ordinary ones for others in the game.

    Is it not better for all individuals in the game to have an assortment of big, pretty and damaged so when they return to their homes, they can take pride in their big and pretty, polish their damaged, and have an assortment they can be proud of as well. Allowing each player to keep his newly found marbles makes all collections bigger and potentially nicer. If someone wants to change the composition of his collection, he negotiates a trade so that all are happy with the result.

    Note, I did not say that players should be forced to share their newly found marbles. If they wish to gift to other players, that is fine; the forced transfer of marbles is not. A player’s collection primarily grows based on his own efforts. A friend with a particularly rich source of marbles could share with others not as fortunate and teach them better strategies for searching for or making new and nicer marbles.

    Why bother looking for more marbles if the bully is going to take the big and pretty ones in the next game. Is it not better for all players to have piles of diverse marbles that they continue to grow rather than envy the bully who just takes from others even though he has more than enough. The others in the game would be less likely to resent the bully when all participants have an investment – even if not identical – in the marble population.

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  4. Where is the ability of those of us who have been injured by this visa to talk to Trump? I sure hope Grassley and Sessions are there as well.

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  5. Norm, it sounds like you could make a killing working for the Dark Side.

    This industry that is essentially a modern day version of indentured servitude probably generates enough profit to run a small to mid-sized nation.

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  6. Scary. Hatch has a long history of unbridled zeal for hurting American IT workers. It makes one wonder why he keeps getting re-elected. I shudder to think that Hatch intends to try to convince President Trump to water down the H-1b reforms.

    Hatch continues to espouse the Nasscom nonsense that H-1b creates jobs for Americans. Anyone working in IT knows the truth. If H-1b creates any jobs, they are IT broker jobs for Indians and programming jobs reserved for Indians. Americans need not apply.

    I certainly hope others in President Trump’s inner circle, such as AG Sessions, who see H-1b’s record of devastation clearly, will have more influence over Trump’s H-1b plans. If Hatch gets his way, nothing will change and the Indian mafia will continue to control the IT jobs.

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  7. > Well of course the data is on their side — they paid for it. That study they are referring to is funded by a pro-H-1B advocacy group. I’m told the group pays researchers $50,000 to write a study favorable to the group.

    Yes, I noticed that the study contains the infamous claim that “every immigrant with an advanced degree from a US university working in a STEM field creates 2.62 new American jobs”. The analysis at http://econdataus.com/amjobs.htm shows this to be a bogus claim. The most obvious problem is described at http://econdataus.com/amjobs1.htm#section16 . In brief, the 2.62 jobs gain depends on the inclusion of the tech crash, a period of steep job LOSS for both foreign and native workers. Using the exact same formula and looking at 2002-2009 instead of 2000-2007 results in a measured job LOSS of 1.21 native jobs for each such immigrant.

    In any case, there’s another article about Hatch that just came out at http://fortune.com/2017/02/16/republican-tech-agenda/ . Following is an excerpt:

    > In his speech, Hatch took aim at a “handful of bad actors” who manipulate the H1-B program to replace U.S. workers with cheaper labor. Though he did not name any specific companies, Hatch’s comment appeared to be a swipe at firms like Infosys and Wipro that obtain H1-B visas in large batches to supply IT workers from companies like India who work for lower wagers.

    > Hatch also urged Congress to continue to rely on immigration to address a U.S. skills shortage in math and science, while listing some possible ideas to curtail H1-B abuse.

    > “To throw out just a few possible solutions, we could cap the number of H-1B visas any single employer can apply for,” Hatch said. “We could do multiple waves of lotteries. We could require additional attestations that an employer tried to fill a job with an American worker but was unable to do so.”

    Hence, Hatch believes in both the “Intel versus Infosys” and the STEM worker shortage myths.

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