Tag: immigration

I Approve

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Generally, when you hear lawmakers lauding a bipartisan initiative.

In this case, the decision by the House Judiciary Committee to unanimously clamp down on H1B mills appears to be the exception to this rule, though I’m thinking that there may be some mischief in the carve outs for companies like Facebook and Google:

Bipartisanship on the divisive issue of immigration is a rarity in Congress, but that is what happened when the House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved legislation making it harder for Indian outsourcing companies to bring high-skilled foreign workers to the U.S.

At the same time, the bill eases rules on some U.S. high-tech firms that use H-1B visas, putting political distance between Silicon Valley and Indian outsourcers as President Donald Trump condemns the program as rampant with abuse and a source of unfair competition to American workers.

The new rules apply only to companies that are heavy users of the program, or “H-1B dependent.” Lawmakers changed the definition of “H-1B dependent” to make sure technology companies that hire hundreds of foreigners every year, such as Facebook Inc., weren’t affected.

In turn, the House bill, the Protect and Grow American Jobs Act, has infuriated Indian outsourcing companies and the Indian government, according to someone who advises the government.

Nasscom, an information technology trade group in India, argues the measure “unfairly and arbitrarily” targets a handful of companies “while imposing no new requirement on the vast majority of companies that use the visas to do the … exact same things,” according to a statement from the group’s president, Rentala Chandrashekhar.

The new rules would require that firms either pay workers more–as much as $135,000 a year—or prove they tried to recruit Americans. The bill requires that no Americans are laid off by either the outsourcing firm or the clients that they serve for the entire length of the visa. It also authorizes Labor Department investigations and raises fees.

………

The legislation also would put Indian firms such as Infosys Ltd. and Tata Consulting Services Ltd. at a disadvantage against a handful of competitors, such as International Business Machines Corp. and Accenture Ltd., even though they also employ a large number of foreign workers and use a similar business model. That is because those companies have many divisions, which keeps the portion of their overall workforce using H-1B visas low and their firms from being defined as “dependent.”

The devil, as always, is in the details.

If There Were Only Some Proxy for Value That Could Be Use to Address Labor Shortages

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Over at the NPR program Morning Edition this morning, they were reporting on the Trump administration ending the temporary protected status (TPS) for some refugees because conditions have improved in their countries

They were  because wringing their hands because ending the program might cause shortages of construction workers.

We can argue whether or not TPS status should actually be temporary, but this argument is complete crap.

If there is a shortage of construction workers, the solution is Econ 101:  You pay them more, and you pay to train them.

I understand that people like, for example, NPR correspondents don’t like the idea of paying a few bucks more to have a Jacuzzi installed on their back porch, but for the rest of us, it’s not a huge deal.

Stopped Clock, H1B Edition

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The Trump administration is starting to apply due diligence to the widely abused H1B guest worker program, and companies used to doing whatever the f%$# they want are having a tantrum:

Donald Trump came into office promising a restrictive new approach to immigration and there has been little question about his intention to follow through — with one seeming exception. Despite its enthusiastic rhetoric about the H-1B program, which provides temporary visas to high-skilled workers, the administration failed to make significant changes in time to impact the program’s annual lottery this April, leaving some who had anticipated action fuming. It has also declined to take up any of the legislative proposals for H-1B overhaul.

But a crackdown has been in the works, albeit more quietly. Starting this summer, employers began noticing that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was challenging an unusually large number of H-1B applications. Cases that would have sailed through the approval process in earlier years ground to a halt under requests for new paperwork. The number of challenges — officially known as “requests for evidence” or RFEs — are up 44 percent compared to last year, according to statistics from USCIS. The percentage of H-1B applications that have resulted in RFEs this year are at the highest level they’ve been since 2009, and by absolute number are considerably higher than any year for which the agency provided statistics.

The H-1B program is controversial largely because IT firms based in India have used it to hire for rote computer programming jobs. These firms, like Infosys Ltd. and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., have been working to reduce their reliance on the program, in anticipation of a less receptive political landscape. The overall number of H-1B applications dropped this year for the first time in five years. The skeptical eye the government is taking to applications has extended to all types of employers, according to immigration lawyers. Many are rethinking their own use of H-1B as a result.

The H1B program was intended to allow for someone to be hired if they have a skill set that could not be found in the US.

The H1B program does not work that way in reality.  It’s actually a source of cheap labor, and a way to lower wages generally in the industry.

Donald Trump is right on this, and the delicate snowflakes who are experiencing butt hurt over this are wrong.

Germany Hegemony in Europe, Civil Turmoil in Spain, Fascists in Austria ……… I’m Sensing a Pattern

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As the saying goes, “History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes, and Vienna is today’s episode of European slam poetry:

Austria became the latest European country to take a sharp turn right on Sunday, with the conservative People’s Party riding a hard-line position on immigration to victory in national elections and likely to form a government with a nationalist party that has long advocated for an even tougher stance.

The result puts the 31-year-old foreign minister and People’s Party leader, Sebastian Kurz, in line to become Austria’s next chancellor after a campaign in which he emphasized the need to strengthen border controls, reduce caps on refugees and slash benefits for newcomers.

Much of Kurz’s rhetoric echoed positions long held by the Freedom Party, which for decades has anchored the far right of politics in this nation of 8.7 million.

With nearly all results counted as of Monday morning, the Freedom Party was in second place at 27.4 percent, with the ruling Social Democrats trailing close behind at 26.7 percent. The People’s Party was the decisive winner, at 31.6 percent.

 I hope that I’m just being alarmist here, but I fear that I’m being prescient.

Live in Obedient Fear, Citizen

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With an explosion in accusations of abuse in the execution of their duties, the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has come up with a novel solution, it wants to destroy all of its records, much like the British Colonial Dervices when they covered up their brutality as they exited former colonies in Operation Legacy:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently asked the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA), which instructs federal agencies on how to maintain records, to approve its timetable for retaining or destroying records related to its detention operations. This may seem like a run-of-the-mill government request for record-keeping efficiency. It isn’t. An entire paper trail for a system rife with human rights and constitutional abuses is at stake.

ICE has asked for permission to begin routinely destroying 11 kinds of records, including those related to sexual assaults, solitary confinement and even deaths of people in its custody. Other records subject to destruction include alternatives to detention programs; regular detention monitoring reports, logs about the people detained in ICE facilities and communications from the public reporting detention abuses. ICE proposed various timelines for the destruction of these records ranging from 20 years for sexual assault and death records to three years for reports about solitary confinement.

How convenient.

Karma is a Bitch, and He Should Die in Jail

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Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has been found guilty of criminal contempt and faces up to 6 months in jail.

It’s not long enough. This guy has spent the past 30 years trampling the rule of law and abusing his position, but it’s a good start:

The immigration policies that elevated former Sheriff Joe Arpaio to fame were the same that would ultimately lead to his political demise and conviction of a federal crime.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton found Arpaio guilty of criminal contempt of court, finding that he willfully violated a federal judge’s order.

The sentencing phase will begin Oct. 5. Arpaio faces up to six months in confinement, a sentence equivalent to that of a misdemeanor.

Bolton’s ruling follows a five-day June and July trial, in which Department of Justice prosecutors argued that the 85-year-old had intentionally flouted a federal judge’s orders halting Arpaio’s signature immigration round-ups.

Honestly, his anti-Hispanic activities are really a small part of his wrongdoing.

He:

This is a deeply evil man, and he needs to spend the rest of natural life in prison.

Of course, the maximum sentence is only 6 months, but I think that some other rocks will be turned over in the interim.

Not Sure How to Read This

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I am referring, of course to the Supreme Court’s decision on the Trump Muslim/Travel Ban.

They allowed limited parts of the injunction to continue, but allowed the ban to come into effect for refugees (without family in the US) and tourists.

Since Trump’s latest executive order is time limited, any final decision might largely be moot, and I am wondering if this is an exercise of judicial kick the can:

Today the Supreme Court agreed to review rulings by two lower courts blocking the implementation of President Donald Trump’s March 6 executive order, popularly known as the “travel ban.” Citing national-security concerns, the order imposed a freeze on new visas from six Muslim-majority countries (Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen). But the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit had put the order on hold last month, concluding that – although it did not specifically say so – the order likely violated the Constitution because the president intended to discriminate against Muslim travelers. Earlier this month, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit also blocked the order, but on a different ground: It concluded that the order exceeds the authority that Congress has given the president to regulate immigration. The court’s announcement today means that the justices will review both of those decisions. The justices also granted the Trump administration’s request to allow the ban to go into effect, at least for would-be travelers who don’t already have some connection to the United States.

The announcement came in a brief, unsigned opinion issued by the justices when they took the bench this morning to release opinions in cases argued on the merits earlier this term. The court’s opinion focused primarily on the government’s request to reinstate the ban while the cases are before the Supreme Court. Emphasizing that the purpose of temporary relief like this is “to balance the equities as the litigation moves forward,” the court made clear that it had the authority to “tailor” its ruling so that it applied to some, but not all, of those affected.

That is precisely what it did. The lower courts had considered the hardships that the ban would create for the named plaintiffs in the case: two men with family members who want to come to the United States from the affected countries; and the state of Hawaii, whose state university had admitted students from those countries. But, the court explained today, the lower courts’ orders barring enforcement of the ban “reach much further than that,” because they also apply to people living overseas “who have no connection to the United States at all.” When those people are unable to come to the United States, the court reasoned, their constitutional rights are not violated – because they have no right to come to the United States – and their exclusion from the country does not harm anyone in the United States.

The justices therefore upheld the lower courts’ orders blocking enforcement of the ban with regard to the named plaintiffs and others like them – people who “have a credible claim” of a genuine relationship with someone or an institution in the United States. When that relationship is with an individual, the court made clear, it must be a close family member. And when the relationship is with an institution, the relationship must also be a genuine one, rather than one created just to get around the travel ban.

I think that it was basically a punt, with Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch writing a concurring opinion that goes full black shirt, which should surprise no one who has followed their careers.

This Would Be Ironic

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When the Supreme Court declined to overturn Obamacare, they did restrict it somewhat, by declaring that the provision of the law that required states to expand Medicaid or leave the program.

The Court found that it was too coercive.

Legal experts are saying that this ruling would likely apply to Jeff Sessions’ attempts to defund sanctuary cities:

The Trump administration announced this week that it will make good on its January threat to claw back funding from so-called sanctuary cities that limit information-sharing with federal immigration officials. Yet hundreds of legal experts say the move would itself be illegal—in part due to a court ruling Republicans cheered just a few years ago.

In 2012, the Supreme Court forced the Obama administration to make Medicaid expansion voluntary for states instead of mandatory, ruling that when the federal government “threatens to terminate other significant independent grants as a means of pressuring the States to accept” a federal policy, it is unconstitutionally coercive.

Conservative groups that celebrated this victory over “infringement on state sovereignty by the federal government” may now be dismayed to learn that it could throw a wrench into the Trump administration’s current plan to punish sanctuary cities.

I am amused.

Something Useful from the C.I.A.

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Among the various CIA documents Wikileaks has released recently is instructions for how covert operatives can handle aggressive screeners at airports.

I’ve not read the document in detail yet (it’s a PDF at the link), but it seems to me that it has some useful hints for travelers.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t say much about dealing with the increasingly out of control ICE & CPB agents in the US, but it is good general primer on how to avoid that body cavity search.

ICE Needs to Be Burnt to the Ground and Rebuilt from Scratch

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Recent incidents related to Trump’s Muslim ban indicated that that there was some rot, but this shows that there is nothing but rot.

This is the sort of abuse of law enforcement power that would give J. Edgar Hoover a hard on:

Federal agents privately alerted two magistrate judges in late January that they would be targeting the Austin area for a major operation and that the sting was retribution for a new policy by Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez that dramatically limited her cooperation with them, according to one of the judges.

The revelation — made Monday in open court by U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Austin — conflicts with what Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told local leaders after the sweep, when ICE characterized the operation as routine and said the Austin area was not being targeted. It also provides evidence after weeks of speculation that Hernandez’s policy triggered ICE’s ire.

“We had a briefing … that we could expect a big operation, agents coming in from out of town, that it was going to be a specific operation, and at least it was related to us in that meeting that it was the result of the sheriff’s new policy that this was going to happen,” Austin said.

“My understanding, what was told to us, is that one of the reasons that happened was because the meetings that had occurred between the (ICE) field office director and the sheriff didn’t go very well,” he said.

In case you wondering, these folks are clearly feeling empowered by the Trump administration, and are revealing themselves to be people who should be kept far, far, FAR, away from anything resembling law enforcement.

Live in obedient fear, citizen.

Human Sacrifice, Dogs and Cats Living Together… Mass Hysteria!

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It appears that we are now having Pennsylvania Mennonites protesting Donald Trump policies:

Mary Beth Martin and Lindsey Martin Corbo each held one side of the large cardboard poster, the mother and her adult daughter eager to deliver a personal if unconventional message to their congressman, Republican Rep. Lloyd Smucker.

“Hey Smucker,” said the sign, written in red, green, and blue marker. “300 years ago our Mennonite family took sanctuary in PA, just like yours did.

“Lancaster values immigrants.”

The anger might have been directed at Smucker, but Martin and Corbo were really there – like 100 others – because of President Donald Trump.

The two women were among a hundred newly engaged activists assembled in Republican-heavy Lancaster County – an area that went to Trump in November by 57 percent – braving toe-freezing temperatures to protest Trump and the lawmaker, who was 200 yards away at a chamber of commerce breakfast.

That Martin and Corbo were protesters was – by their own admission – a remarkable development. Both are members of the Mennonite Church, a religion that encourages its members to stay away from politics just as it asks them to shun the wider culture.

This is like a half step away from the Amish engaging in civil disobedience, and I ain’t talking about Rumspringa here.

H/t Charlie Pierce.

Quote of the Day

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To be fair, and to be scientific about it, we should choose another subpopulation for equal focus, so we can measure the effects of our added attention. I suggest starting with politicians.

—Cathy O’Neil

She is noting that the Trump administration is engaging in an effort to find more crime committee by immigrants, and she notes that when you look for this, you will generally find it.

It’s what I call a self-licking ice cream cone, and her suggestion to focus on politicians as a statistical control is both methodologically reasonable and delicious snark.

Well, This is Profoundly Disturbing

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Khizr Khan, the parent of a soldier killed in Iraq who was killed in Iraq, has canceled a speech in Toronto because he has been told that limitations have or will be placed on his travel:

The father of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq has cancelled a speech planned for Toronto on Tuesday, with the event organizer suggesting Khizr Khan was concerned about travelling outside the United States.

In an email to ticket holders on Monday, organizer Bob Ramsay said Khan was “notified that his travel privilege (sic) are being reviewed” Sunday evening.

“This turn of events is not just of deep concern to me, but to all my fellow Americans who cherish our freedom to travel abroad,” Khan said, according to Ramsay’s statement.

“I have not been given any reason as to why.”

It’s not clear what “review” Khan was referring to. While the Trump administration continues to try to implement a travel ban for citizens from six Muslim-majority countries and deport illegal immigrants, neither initiative would apply to Khan, who became a U.S. citizen in 1986.

Actually, US citizens were forbidden from entering the US under Barack Obama, so this is not only something that could be done, it is something that has been done by the FBI in an attempt to coerce testimony or service as an informant.

This was done by putting people on the no-fly list, but given the complete embrace of bigotry and lawlessness recently demonstrated by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (it used to be called the INS), Mr. Khan would likely encounter extreme harassment if he were to attempt to re-enter on a land crossing.

I think that the INS is the only federal bureaucracy that is ecstatic about Trump being in the White House, and I’m thinking that it’s 50-50 that this was the brain child of some minor functionary in la migra, rather than someone in the Trump administration.

The past few weeks have indicated that it is an organization that is rotten to the core, so I hope that someone is keeping notes for the next administration. 

Another Stopped Clock Moment

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Trump has suspended the accelerated review program for the H1B program.

Short version of this is that for an additional $1,225.00, you can have your application reviewed in a guaranteed 15 days or less, rather than the could be as long as 6 months normal review.

The people who are most likely to use this are the Indian body shops who provide temps to tech firms:

The Trump administration’s decision to halt expedited processing of H-1B visas could abruptly disrupt the plans of thousands of immigrant workers in a range of businesses from technology to health care, immigration experts say.

H-1B visas allow employers to bring in skilled foreign workers; about 85,000 will be given out this year. The visas are in high demand and given out by lottery. It can take six months or longer for an application to be reviewed.

But the government announced Friday that, as of April 3, it will suspend the “premium processing” option, which ensures an application will be reviewed within 15 days. It costs $1,225. 

………

Neil Ruiz, executive director of the Center for Law, Economics and Finance at George Washington University, said the Trump administration’s decision to stop expedited processing could be the first step away from the lottery system.

“I think that removing premium processing may allow the administration to pick who to prioritize in the wait times for H-1B visas,” Ruiz told CNNMoney.

Watson called the move a “big deal” because certain “employers and individuals require premium processing in certain situations.”

If the employees are truly essential and have a skill set unavailable in the United States, you can wait.

If you are looking for cheap labor, time is money, and you look elsewhere .

Good moments are going to be few and far between for the next few years, so I’ll take pleasure in small wins.

H-1B: Why a new US visa bill is causing panic in India – BBC News

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The world’s smallest violin, playing just for you

Proposals from Trump and in the Congress to reform the thoroughly dysfunctional H-1B immigration program are making the outsourcing firms in India sh%$ themselves. It could not happen to a more deserving group of ratf%$#s:

A new bill introduced in the US House of Representatives proposes to limit the entry of highly-skilled workers into the country to stop companies “replacing” American workers.

Indian media organisations have described the move as a big setback to the IT industry and the Indian government has conveyed its concerns to the US administration.

………

Several bills and a draft executive order are attempting changes to – or curbs on – the H-1B programme.

The High-Skilled Integrity and Fairness Act of 2017, introduced last week in the House of Representatives by California lawmaker Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat, calls for replacing the lottery system with a preference for companies that can pay the highest salaries.

It suggests raising the effective minimum wage for an H-1B visa holder to over $130,000, more than double the current $60,000 level established in 1989. Exemptions, though allowed, are rare.

The bill says the visa programme “has allowed replacement of American workers by outsourcing companies with cheaper H-1B workers” and aims to end the “abuse” of the programme.

“My legislation refocuses the H-1B programme to its original intent – to seek out and find the best and brightest from around the world, and to supplement the US workforce with talented, highly paid, and highly skilled workers who help create jobs here in America, not replace them,” Rep Lofgren said on her website.

………

The proposed new legislation mainly targets companies not based in the US that bring in foreign employees on the visa quota.

The doubling of the minimum wage applies to “visa dependent employers” or companies with more than 15% of US employees on H-1B visas.

It excludes American firms such as IBM, allowing them to bring in H-1B holders at the older minimum wage, because they would have less than 15% of US employees on H-1B visas.

This effectively targets Indian outsourcing firms and the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) has described it as “discriminatory”.

The “Visa Dependent Employers” are using regulatory arbitrage and salutary neglect to extract rents at the expense of US workers and their own employees.

They can go Cheney themselves.

With the new bill targeting “visa dependant employers”, it is primarily Indian firms such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Wipro which will be affected.

On Tuesday, stocks of Indian software exporters plunged – TCS’s shares fell 4.47%, Infosys’s declined 2% and Wipro’s 1.62%.

Good.  Their business model is a parasitic one.

This needs to end.

I Take One Day off from Blogging, and the Whole World Goes Pear Shaped

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Trump just issued an executive order banning entry from seven predominantly Muslim countries.  Rather unsurprisingly, given the motley crew of racists populating his senior administration, this applies to legal residents of the United States (green card holders) as well:

President Trump on Friday closed the nation’s borders to refugees from around the world, ordering that families fleeing the slaughter in Syria be indefinitely blocked from entering the United States, and temporarily suspending immigration from several predominantly Muslim countries.

In an executive order that he said was part of an extreme vetting plan to keep out “radical Islamic terrorists,” Mr. Trump also established a religious test for refugees from Muslim nations: He ordered that Christians and others from minority religions be granted priority over Muslims.

There’s something that I think even Clarence Thomas would rule as unconstitutional before the ink was dry.

“We don’t want them here,” Mr. Trump said of Islamist terrorists during a signing ceremony at the Pentagon. “We want to ensure that we are not admitting into our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas. We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country, and love deeply our people.”

Earlier in the day, Mr. Trump explained to an interviewer for the Christian Broadcasting Network that Christians in Syria were “horribly treated” and alleged that under previous administrations, “if you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible.”

BTW, the Trump administration is now walking back applying the EO to green card holders.

This clusterf%$# was complete with Customs and Immigration refusing a federal court order to allow lawyers to talk to the detainees:

………

Early in the evening, a huge piece of news broke: Two federal judges, Ann Donnelly of the Eastern District of New York and Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia, had made rulings that would stall the implementation of Trump’s anti-refugee executive order.

For the lawyers at Dulles Airport, Brinkema’s ruling generated a ton of excitement. She ruled that the travelers detained by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had a right to see lawyers. 

 ………

 But lawyers who spoke to The Daily Beast said it’s also unheard of for government agencies like CBP to prevent people who have the legal right to live in the U.S. from seeing their lawyers. And that’s what was happening.

After Brinkema’s order came down, and lawyers at Dulles prepared to meet their new clients, the CBP balked, barring these lawyers from seeing their would-be clients. 

It’s gotten so bat that Richard Bruce Cheney is calling it a bad idea.

And in the bad idea area, Trump Trump put Steve Bannon on the National Security Council, while dropping the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Director of National Intelligence from the Principal’s Committee:

President Donald Trump is reshuffling the US National Security Council (NSC), downgrading the military chiefs of staff and giving a regular seat to his chief strategist Steve Bannon.

 Mr Bannon, formerly the head of the populist right-wing, Breitbart News website, will join high-level discussions about national security.

 The order was signed on Saturday.

 The director of national intelligence and the joint chiefs will attend when discussions pertain to their areas.

 Under previous administrations, the director and joint chiefs attended all meetings of the NSC’s inner circle, the principals’ committee.

I actually have mixed emotions on this, on one hand, he is clearly removing experienced voices in the American intelligence establishment from a major role, on the other hand, these American intelligence establishment has been a giant clusterf%$# of fail since well before the Bay of Pigs invasion.

And finally, and I am sure that Bannon had something to do with this. they issued a statement acknowledging Holocaust Rememberance Day which neglected to mention Jews at all.

F%$# Me! I F%$#ing Agree with F%$#ing Donald F%$#ing Trump!

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It appears that Silicon Valley freaking out because Donald Trump said that the H1B program has driven down wages, and that he does not like it:

Before he was elected to be the next US president, Donald Trump had garnered the support of just one prominent billionaire in Silicon Valley: Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal and Facebook board member.

The US technology industry had been shocked that one veteran from the Valley, which prides itself on liberal values, had supported, funded and even spoken for Mr Trump at his convention — and is now part of the president’s transition team.

………

 But amid a feeling of bewildered detachment from the rest of the US, a serious business problem emerged — that Mr Trump’s plan for a wall to keep out illegal Mexican immigrants could end up hurting Silicon Valley’s growth prospects. The industry is worried he could stall their hiring programmes dependent on H-1B visas or make it harder for them to fund foreign start-up founders.

Of course, they could just pay more, and they would get the talent, but instead they want to bring over slave laber kept captive by the remote possibility of an eventual green card.

Here is the classic bullsh%$ scare quote:

“Given the rate of growth we are seeing in so many different tech companies from Facebook to Uber to Google or a company like Box, there’s simply a shortage of really great talent,” Mr Levie said. “When you have incredible talent that wants to work in your organisation but you are preventing them from doing so, that is disastrous to innovation and competition.”

Amit Kumar, chief executive at Trimian, an app developer with employees in Silicon Valley and India, said a restriction of H-1B visas for skilled guest workers could push tech companies to invest more in overseas offices, like manufacturers who had moved abroad.

The cost of moving IT overseas is astonishingly small.

It’s not much more than the cost of moving it across the street.

If it was all about saving money, they would already be in Bangalore, you would pay less for programmers, secretaries, grounds keepers, office space, etc.

What’s more, I have it on good authority that there are some good curry places there.

The H1B and L1A programs have been thoroughly corrupt for at least 3 decades, and it needs to be torn down.

Live in Obedient Fear, Citizen!

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Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan and university president (technically a rector) has been denied entry into the United States:

I have been refused entry clearance to the USA to chair the presentation of the Sam Adams Award to CIA torture whistleblower John Kiriakou and to speak at the World Beyond War conference in Washington DC. Like millions of British passport holders I have frequently visited the USA before and never been refused entry clearance under the visa waiver programme.

I shall apply for a visa via the State Department as suggested but I must be on a list to be refused under the ESTA system, and in any event it is most unlikely to be completed before the conference.

It is worth noting that despite the highly critical things I have published about Putin, about civil liberties in Russia and the annexation of the Crimea, I have never been refused entry to Russia. The only two countries that have ever refused me entry clearance are Uzbekistan and the USA. What does that tell you?

This is profoundly and deeply wrong.

It is also profoundly typical.

There appears to be no end to the mischief and evil that the myth “American Exceptionalism” justifies.

God Bless America.

I am Both Horrified and Impressed

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When Donald Trump said that he would make Mexico pay for a border wall between the two countries.

I figure that he was engaging in classical Trump bullsh%$, but he has now said how this. Specifically, he has said that will hold remittances to Mexico hostage to get concessions:

New Delhi, Beijing, Manila and Paris may want to sit up and take notice. Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump plans to make Mexico pay for the wall:he intends to build on the United States’ southern border by cutting off remittances – transfer of money by a foreign worker to his home country – till it coughs up the lolly.

This unprecedented threat – detailed in a two-page memo Donald Trump+ has drawn up – could decimate the Mexican economy, which receives around $24 billion annually in remittances, and is the fifth largest remittance-receiving country in the world. The top four (for whom this should serve as a warning about the methods Trump would consider to settle accounts): India ($ 72 billion in remittances in 2015), China ($ 64 billion), Philippines ($ 30 billion), and France ($25 billion).

The memo, with the subject line “Compelling Mexico to Pay for the Wall,” offers an insight into the kind of bare-knuckle tactics Trump will employ to offset what he sees as economic injustice against the United States, including withholding of visas and trade tariffs.

”Our approvals of hundreds of thousands of visas every year is one of our greatest leverage points,” Trump writes. ”We also have leverage through business and tourist visas for important people in the Mexican economy.”

These remittances would account for about 2½% of Mexican GDP, so it would have a significant impact on the economy, particularly in rural and poor.

Note that I find this course of action, particularly with regard to the secondary effects, money transfer to Mexico would almost certainly go underground, creating a new profit center for various gangs, to be ill advised, but Trump actually does have a plan to accomplish this.  (And that’s ignoring the rather dire human consequences of this policy.)

That being said, there is a certain perverse elegance in the plan.