Trump move on work visas could ‘devastate’ Irish IT firms, says expert

“From tiny start-ups we’ve not heard of yet, to later-stage ones like Stripe and Slack, to large-sized tech companies like Airbnb and Dropbox, and even bigger ones like Facebook and Google”.

To “protect the American people from terrorist attacks by foreign nationals admitted to the United States”, President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order that freezes travel for 90 days for citizens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen. More than any other industry, the tech enclave embraces the work and aspirations of immigrants.

But it could grow more hostile if Trump follows through with a draft executive order aimed at overhauling the H-1B work-visa program tech companies favor.

Other tech leaders are taking action on their own, though it’s safe to say that a lot of them are still taking a cautious public stance. Under the order, companies would have to attempt to hire American workers first, before recruiting overseas.

Foreign work visas were originally established to allow U.S. companies to recruit workers from overseas if there weren’t any qualified local workers. Without Congress changing the laws, there might not be much more blood an executive order can squeeze out of this particular stone.

Senior Wilhelm Liano also observed the initial disadvantage that foreign workers experience. This means a massive number of work visas are granted each year.

And if they do hire foreign workers, priority will be given to the most highly paid. In some cases, former American employees were forced to train the H-1B visa workers that would be replacing them. This isn’t quite a surprise: past year, Trump vowed that he would “end forever the use of the H1-B as a cheap labor program”, which the tech industry relies on, “and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program”. This might be an indication that American companies are going after highly skilled employees, whereas Indian outsourcing firms might seek less expensive talent. Kalanick also said working with Trump had created what he called a “perception-reality gap between who people think we are, and who we actually are”. Legislation drafts are already in motion.

The entire goal of the work visa program was to allow innovation by bringing in top minds in their fields when local talent wasn’t sufficient. Many tech companies have founders that are foreign-born and have hired many foreign workers to fill jobs here.

“We think it’s a very unsafe policy”, Mr Levie continued.

Representative Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, wants to get rid of the lottery used to decide which companies get the scarce visas.

The new executive order will be aimed at ensuring businesses hire Americans first.

And despite what Trump said on the campaign trail against the proposed merger, the individuals Trump picked to oversee the DOJ transition have a history helping large, private companies get their way with USA regulatory agencies.

Software developer GitHub is reportedly organizing a meeting with tech companies about filing a brief challenging an order from President Trump temporarily restricting immigration from seven Muslim countries.

Through social media, we heard from Netflix’s Reed Hastings who said the executive order was “so un-American it pains us all”. “So American workers might have jobs, but we would all have to pay $2,000 for an iPhone, so to speak”. She highlighted the massive remittances sent to Indians working in the U.S. Indian tech corporations have argued the current system keeps jobs in the U.S. and that increased obstacles would encourage companies to work remotely rather send workers to the U.S. Others have argued that access to cheap labor makes companies more competitive. With such differing perspectives in play, it may be a while before the issue gets resolved.