Microsoft asks all foreign staff to return to US after Trump's H1B bombshell

(economictimes.indiatimes.com)

15 points | by healsdata 7 hours ago ago

8 comments

  • mrlonglong 6 hours ago ago

    Trump and his pals forget that US kids aren't interested in STEM these days. Who's got to spend billions training and educating them?

    Thank goodness I'm no longer a H1B holder, having returned home after the Clinton days.

    • jmpman 6 hours ago ago

      Those $100k fees can be used to fund STEM scholarships for US citizens. The H1Bs fees could be the billions training and educating them.

      • Spivak 5 hours ago ago

        You are absolutely daft if you think that's how money works in government. It all goes into a pot and is dolled out according to the budget. When you impose fees like this the fee alone has to be worth it independently.

        We should fund training and education in STEM for US citizens but that is a separate discussion from this.

    • skn100 6 hours ago ago

      [dead]

  • pavlov 7 hours ago ago

    They come up with these rules on a Saturday morning. If you’re a visa holder outside the country and you don’t return to the US by Sunday, you’ll be asked to pay a $100k ransom to re-enter the country where your life and work and children are.

    Amazing level of contempt for ordinary foreigners who came into the country legally.

    The inhumanity aside, the economy-related quotes from Lutnick and Trump are typically laughable. It’s hard to believe these guys are in charge:

    “[Lutnick] added that the revised program would filter out the ‘bottom quartile’ while generating more than $100 billion for the US Treasury. Trump further said that the revenue would be used to reduce national debt and lower taxes.”

    The US has a multi-trillion-dollar deficit. Even if they could somehow get a million H1B holders paying this huge sum, the income wouldn’t reduce the national debt because you’re still running a big deficit. It would just slightly slow the current growth of the deficit.

    • jvanderbot 6 hours ago ago

      You're of course right on all points, but in the sense of HN, I'm required to point out that technically, reducing the deficit even a little does reduce the debt as a fn of time, so that the debt at any future time is lower than it would be.

    • jmpman 6 hours ago ago

      Every dime paid by the H1B tax is a dime the US taxpayers don’t need to pay. The administration should go further and layer an additional tax on H1B’s income. That would reduce the amount the H1Bs take home. Excess pay in the tech industry is driving up real estate prices in the bay and Seattle. The excess pay is either spent on rent or remitted to the home country. Neither is beneficial to a US worker in the technology hubs.

      • Irishsteve 6 hours ago ago

        Would that not be a slippery slope ? Tax foreigners more if on a h1b, but not foreigners on other work visas.