In three debates, H-1B visa untouched by Clinton and Trump

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3132962/it-outsourcing/in-three-debates-h-1b-visa-untouched-by-clinton-and-trump.html

In three presidential debates, including the final one Wednesday night, the two candidates did not talk about the H-1B visa program. This was the last opportunity for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to compare and contrast what may be tech's most controversial issue.

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The portion of the debate set aside Wednesday night for immigration quickly shifted to a discussion about hacked emails and Kremlin meddling. Fox New anchor Chris Wallace may be criticized for allowing this portion of the debate to run off the rails, but the person who deserves the most blame is Trump, the Republican nominee.

Trump had everything to gain by raising the temporary visa issue and its use in offshore outsourcing. The tech industry has thrown its financial support behind Clinton, the Democratic nominee.

It's so bad for Trump in Silicon Valley that Meg Whitman, the Hewlett-Packard Enterprise CEO and one-time Republican candidate for governor in California, announced her support for Clinton. For sure, Trump is getting the backing of Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist and PayPal co-founder, but in this election, Thiel is an outlier among his Silicon Valley peers.

trump sessions perrero h-1b

Photo courtesy of Leo Perrero

Leo Perrero, center, a former Disney IT employee, is flanked by U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), left, and presidential candidate Donald Trump after at a recent Trump rally where Perrero spoke of his experience of being laid off last year after training his visa-holding replacement.

In contrast, Clinton has not addressed the visa's use in the offshoring, or whether the H-1B program needs reform. Trump lost an opportunity to challenge Clinton here and discuss her prior support of the visa.

Trump delivered some of his bluntest remarks in this campaign about the H-1B visa program in an Oct. 13 speech in Columbus, Ohio. It was dubbed his "millennial policy" speech.

Trump called the outsourcing of jobs overseas for "college educated kids" a "tremendous threat."

"At the same time companies are importing low wage workers on H-1B visas to take jobs from young college-trained Americans," said Trump, at this Ohio rally. "You've been seeing that and you've been hearing that. We will protect these jobs for all Americans, believe me."

Clinton has called it "heartbreaking" when IT workers are put in the position of training foreign replacements, but she has not said whether she believes the visa program needs reform.

Clinton backs comprehensive immigration reform and her strategy will be familiar. The tech industry wants the H-1B cap raised, but congressional supporters of comprehensive immigration reform will not seek substantive changes to the visa independent of a comprehensive immigration reform bill. They don't want tech support for broad immigration reform to peel away.

Unlike Clinton, Trump, as president, would likely be receptive to a separate H-1B reform bill. Trump's main ally in Congress on this issue is Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a leading H-1B critic and the first senator to support Trump.

But the H-1B fight doesn't fall on party lines and almost any reform bill is likely to be a product that's unsatisfying to all sides, including a sprinkling of loopholes that even Trump will likely have to accept.

The real reason why the H-1B visa wasn't raised in this presidential debate, or any of the presidential debates over the last dozen years or so, may be that it's just a niche issue. Both Clinton and Trump may have decided there's no point in discussing this issue on a national stage.

Within the tech sector and among affected IT workers, passions about the visa run high, but outside this sector, most of the country is probably only vaguely aware of it.

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8 replies (most recent on top)

Actually Nursing is impacted buy H1B like visas, however the source countries are not as keen on giving up nurses as they are IT workers. Based on the company telephone book at AT%T, in some groups the amount of employees is 20% to some 80% contractors, who may be H1B or simply outsourced to Tech Mehindra, or Amdocs, or IBM, etc. At least trump mentioned outsource and at least provided a solution to it. Whether that plan gets implemented or swept away in the interests of a more global economy is up to the voters. As individuals we are just victims of riffing, outsourcing, and the boot.

peak up = speak up

correction

sorry

carry on

@JXbgyYt - one of the best posts here on layoffs.com - keep it up, you have insight and we need to peak up about this... thank you

-1xet - Not only H1B visas affects people but offshoring affects more then 1%. Even if 1% affected with H1B visas those people have families Let's take the 250 people that were let go after training H1B visa people before the holidays and had to tell their kids they can't get gifts they had high hopes for. Disney is just 1 example were H1B visas affected the life's of people

Great post and one near and dear to my heart. While other poster says only 1% of the total workforce, first of all, it's higher and secondly, many jobs while not classified as information technology include that as a component of their work. I believe us middle-agers have been sensitive to the dissolving of manufacturing jobs in this country over the years and how the unfair trade deals have ripped families and communities apart. What we were promised were better, higher paying jobs to replace those. Once those started to appear, it was quickly negated by allowing importing H1B workers in or sending the work overseas. Now I wouldnt be against H1B Visas if the reciprocating country could provide the same opportunities and monetary gain for Americans, but they don't. We have to keep fighting somehow against these lazy, lying corporations that there aren't enough Americans with skills and that the problem is American education. The hypocrisy is American business does not want to pay more in taxes that could go toward educational systems and instead further depress the middle class with that responsibility. I am continually witnessing the knee jerk layoffs of highly technical people because it suits companies quarterly reporting and an excuse to say there are not enough skilled workers. We have to cap H1B for our survival or we will all be working in low wage retail. The other issue is that companies with tech workers now have located to the most expensive urban areas of the country. How are college graduates supposed to survive after absorbing so much educational loan debt and live a comfortable lifestyle ? Not all the smartest people live in Silicon Valley or New York, nor do they want to.

This affects only IT, that's 1% of the total workforce. Go talk to Wal-Mart folks, 2 million employees - that's something that can move the needle... How many of you are really affected with #H1B stuff?

They will not touch it due to heavy lobbying ..

It seems like they didn't touch on any of the issues that Americans are really angry about in the debate. A shame. This could of been an opportunity for Donald to shine.

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In three debates, H-1B visa untouched by Clinton and Trump

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