As a relatively centrist American, I find this reasonable. I live in a very blue state (NY) and still 43% of my neighbors voted for Trump, with immigration cited as a key reason. So changes to immigration policy are to be expected.
With regard to temporary visas, the article cited a few types of issues. For example the scenario where someone obtain a temporary visa (promissing to return is a part of the application) and then files for asylum once here. This is broadly understood to be an abuse.
More broadly, because HN is a tech crowd we tend to understand that H1-B visas are often used to supplant American labor cheaper (vs - "filling jobs that Americans aren't willing to fill.") The same dynamic is seen outside of tech as well. Representative example: last year we stayed at two hotels in upstate New York. One was a family run operation that hired local teenagers and older people. It was awesome. The next place right next door, is owned by a larger operation and every single employee was central European - recruited over there and brought here to work the hotel for the summer. I don't think that's a reflection of lack of local labor (said teenagers and older folks) but a business strategy (ab)using temporary worker visas for cheap labor. I think Americans intuitively understand that this doesn't benefit Americans - except the business owners hiring the h1-bs and similar.
So because the system is perceived to be abused and not serving the people's benefit most people are fine with a pause and re-evaluation. Obviously there are sympathetic stories of people caught with uncertainty at the moment and we hope it resolved well for them. At the same time this is a sign of a problematic system in place - the fact that someone here on a temporary visa has an expectation of indefinite renewal means we have created and reinforced such expectation and that probably isn't right.
I don't see how any of this is reasonable. I've heard people say stuff like "I'm not against immigration but they should come through legal means," so how does preventing people from accessing those legal means help anyone? For a country that was built on immigration that seems awfully anti-American.
Wouldn't it make more sense to make the legal process shorter and less unnecessarily bureaucratic so that people are less likely to come in the country undocumented?
Furthermore, the whole "immigrants are stealing our jobs" talking point seems to be built on a lot of false pretenses (and anectodtal evidence is not good evidence), not to mention this is about immigrant visas, which the H1-B is not.
// Wouldn't it make more sense to make the legal process shorter and less unnecessarily bureaucratic so that people are less likely to come in the country undocumented?
Lowering the bar until the kinds of people who are happy to break the law to come here are now legal is not the goal.
Immigration policy changes all the time. H1B was not a thing until the 90s. The country has the right to evaluate what it needs at a given time.
Why do people "break the law" to come to the US, and how do their coming affect you negatively? And again, H1-B is not an immigrant visa, I don't see why you're talking about it here.
They are economic migrants without the means or desire to immigrate legally.
> how do their coming affect you negatively?
They depress blue-collar wages for my fellow Americans. They increase competition for housing. They increase the burden on services like medical and education. I could go on and on...
You're suspiciously credulous. There is no practical reason to do this and the idea you have to shut down immigration for training staff suggests that the relevant US agency is merely incompetent.
Moreover, this administration has a track record which makes it clear its not being reasonable on purpose.
I don't think centrism is about leaving logic behind and splitting the difference.
A judge vacated the previous “more humane” way the state department was doing this (targeted pause on specific problem countries) so this is reactionary. Not including that in the calculation feels disingenuous.
You do understand these rules impact Americans who petition for the visas of their foreign spouses, right? Its not just people coming into this country for work purposes only. Its awfully heartless to assume that the only immigrants coming over here are doing so to solely make money.
This was not mentioned in the linked article so I wasn't specifically holding that (nor did I see this mentioned in a lot of comments?)
Without knowing much about it - that sounds likewise like a something to be sympathetic about but also makes sense that it's part of the overall visa process.
With regard to temporary visas, the article cited a few types of issues. For example the scenario where someone obtain a temporary visa (promissing to return is a part of the application) and then files for asylum once here. This is broadly understood to be an abuse.
More broadly, because HN is a tech crowd we tend to understand that H1-B visas are often used to supplant American labor cheaper (vs - "filling jobs that Americans aren't willing to fill.") The same dynamic is seen outside of tech as well. Representative example: last year we stayed at two hotels in upstate New York. One was a family run operation that hired local teenagers and older people. It was awesome. The next place right next door, is owned by a larger operation and every single employee was central European - recruited over there and brought here to work the hotel for the summer. I don't think that's a reflection of lack of local labor (said teenagers and older folks) but a business strategy (ab)using temporary worker visas for cheap labor. I think Americans intuitively understand that this doesn't benefit Americans - except the business owners hiring the h1-bs and similar.
So because the system is perceived to be abused and not serving the people's benefit most people are fine with a pause and re-evaluation. Obviously there are sympathetic stories of people caught with uncertainty at the moment and we hope it resolved well for them. At the same time this is a sign of a problematic system in place - the fact that someone here on a temporary visa has an expectation of indefinite renewal means we have created and reinforced such expectation and that probably isn't right.