Trump Presidency Round 2

[Irish#1]

Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Trump or his buddies are wrapped up in the Epstein list and he obfuscates the release of the documents tbh

You know she will share with Trump prior to releasing, which I assume he's already seen.

If Bondi said she has the Epstein list why hasn't it been released?

Maybe to redact Trumps name? There's probably some behind the scenes reason. Maybe they are going to release it and make arrest at the same time so it needs to be coordinated?

 

[NDVirginia19]

We need some more damn Massies in Congress. Inexplicable to continue to add billions to the debt. I will not accept any Thomas Massie slander, and hope that he takes McConnells senate seat

 

[calvegas04]

We need some more damn Massies in Congress. Inexplicable to continue to add billions to the debt. I will not accept any Thomas Massie slander, and hope that he takes McConnells senate seat

It's gross how both parties just vote yes or no depending on who introduces the bill. Zero respect for their voters

 

[calvegas04]

Again going harder on our allies than China and russia

 

[TorontoGold]

Again going harder on our allies than China and russia

Oh shit did EU have 43 pounds of Fentanyl enter too?

 

[IrishLax]

Objectively great idea. Should replace as many scam H1Bs as possible with this system.

 

[NDVirginia19]

Again going harder on our allies than China and russia

I'm pretty sure we average about 20% (considerably higher in specific areas) on tariffs against China, and we put another 10% on existing tariffs. Additionally, the current tax scheme with Europe effectively equates to a ~20-25% tariff on US goods with the VAT on imports from the US

 

[Irish#1]

Objectively great idea. Should replace as many scam H1Bs as possible with this system.

That's some "out of the box" thinking.

 

[ab2cmiller]

How much for a platinum card?

 

[NDVirginia19]

Oh shit did EU have 43 pounds of Fentanyl enter too?

That's enough fentanyl to kill nearly 10 million people btw

 

[Irish#1]

Again going harder on our allies than China and russia

I have a feeling this won't happen. Trump likes to use the "shock and awe" approach. Open with the extreme. Recipient expresses outrage. He agrees to back off some. Recipient is happy they avoided the crisis and Trump settles for what he really wanted.

 

[TorontoGold]

That's enough fentanyl to kill nearly 10 million people btw

There was roughly 70,000 fentanyl overdoses last year, 43 pounds of fentanyl came from Canada which is .2% of the total, so Canada’s share was 143 OD’s. You’re a few million off btw.

 

[calvegas04]

I have a feeling this won't happen. Trump likes to use the "shock and awe" approach. Open with the extreme. Recipient expresses outrage. He agrees to back off some. Recipient is happy they avoided the crisis and Trump settles for what he really wanted.

What do you think he wants from the EU?

 

[Irish#1]

What do you think he wants from the EU?

I have no idea, but he wants something, much like the mineral rights with Ukraine.

 

[BuaConstrictor]

 

[BuaConstrictor]

Objectively great idea. Should replace as many scam H1Bs as possible with this system.

It's a horrendously stupid idea...there is already a visa/immigration program like this. EB-5. IIRC the investor floor for that visa is only $1 million of investment in the US. There is barely any demand for it. Somewhere in the 10,000-20,000 range per year. How Trump thinks by raising the investment floor, he'll raise demand to 10 million people(as he later stated) is egregiously stupid.

Tying the H1-B program comments to this doesn't even make sense. EB-5 exists and we still face issues with H1-B. The key to fixing H1-B's is to actually fix H1-B's...not invent some other dumbshit visa program.

Greencard holders/EB-5 visa holders already have a pathway to citizenship anyways..so what exactly is the benefit here?

 

[BuaConstrictor]

 

[IrishLax]

It's a horrendously stupid idea...there is already a visa/immigration program like this. EB-5. IIRC the investor floor for that visa is only $1 million of investment in the US. There is barely any demand for it. Somewhere in the 10,000-20,000 range per year. How Trump thinks by raising the floor, he'll raise demand to 10 million people(as he later stated) is egregiously stupid.

Tying the H1-B program comments to this doesn't even make sense. EB-5 exists and we still face issues with H1-B. The key to fixing H1-B's is to actually fix H1-B's...not invent some other dumbshit visa program.

Greencard holders/EB-5 visa holders already have a pathway to citizenship anyways..so what exactly is the benefit here?

Almost all countries have some sort of investment => residency program. He's obviously not going to get "ten million" people to pay for this, and if you actually are taking statements like that at face value in the Year of our Lord 2025 I don't really know what to say. A fast track residency -> citizenship program for desirable people makes a ton of sense. Doing stuff like this coupled with visas temporary low skill labor positions currently staffed by undocumented people makes a lot of sense. Then massively restrict H1B by drastically raising salary floor, prosecuting Indiana visa fraud, etc. and do similar for foreign students displacing qualified Americans at universities and then gobble up good jobs with OPT. And so on and so forth.

 

[BuaConstrictor]

Almost all countries have some sort of investment => residency program

Yeah..we already do.

He's obviously not going to get "ten million" people to pay for this

No kidding. He's the one passing it off as a way to erase the national debt.

taking statements like that at face value

Again..he is passing this off as an idea to pay off the debt.

Doing stuff like this coupled with visas temporary low skill labor positions currently staffed by undocumented people makes a lot of sense

No, it doesn't. 1. We already have a program that does this 2. There is no demand for this program at the investment levels he is talking about. EB-5 can't even meet it's cap goal at 20% of the investment goal Trump is talking about here.

Then massively restrict H1B by drastically raising salary floor, prosecuting Indiana visa fraud, etc. and do similar for foreign students displacing qualified Americans at universities and then gobble up good jobs with OPT

Tell me you know nothing about immigration without saying it. At most universities, foreign students aren't displacing qualified American students.(More international students don’t mean fewer spots for Americans at U.S. colleges - Open Campus) (Source study: https://nfap.com/wp-content/uploads...nts-and-STEM.NFAP-Policy-Brief.April-2021.pdf)
Most universities are having issues even meeting enrollment goals. The enrollment cliff started a few years ago and looks to continue for the next decade...maybe longer. The influx of foreign students is American colleges and unis trying to supplement the declining domestic enrollment demographic.

Many companies are starting to tightly restrict OPT recipients because it doesn't have a long-term payoff for them. They don't end up sponsoring the students after the year of OPT is done due to the high cost and churn in general is a major issue for many of these corporations right now. It can depend on the field, a bit, and on the company a bit, but overall OPT is getting more difficult for F1 students to acquire as they exit school. In a difficult economy it's not as attractive a fiscal option as when many of these corps were swimming in money.

There is also scant evidence OPT adversely affects US job seekers. There is a study from during the first Trump term that backs this up.

https://nfap.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/International-Students-STEM-OPT-And-The-US-STEM-Workforce.NFAP-Policy-Brief.March-2019.pdf

OPT rates for international were already declining anyways. I think it's somewhere around 1 in 5 or 1 in 4. A vast majority of internationals don't even pursue it.
Edit: Fiscal Year 2023 it was at 23%..a slight bump from 2022 but still behind 2016/2017 peaks.

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12631#:~:text=In%20calendar%20year%20(CY)%202023,authorized%20to%20work%20via%20OPT.

The idea of the "Gold Card" is antithetical to the shrinking government anyways. You're going to need increased staffing to manage this program. USCIS/SEVIS/ICE/DHS is already incredibly backlogged. Adding another visa program to manage during a time when you are trying to reduce the federal workforce and arguably can't even manage the visa programs we have right now isn't a great operational strat.

 

[NDVirginia19]

What if we make the Gold Card $35 Trillion dollars... then we just need to convince one person and we're golden

 

[BuaConstrictor]

then we just need to convince one person and we're golden

1. Good pun.
2. I know a guy:

 

[calvegas04]

Guess they have only edited a few documents so far

 

[NDVirginia19]

 

[NDVirginia19]

MAGA influencers are truly some of the stupidest people lmao. And I don’t mind Cao either

 

[BuaConstrictor]

MAGA are truly some of the stupidest people lmao.

FYP.

 

[IrishLax]

Meanwhile RFK out here saying "we have measles outbreaks all the time" after the first death on US soil in years.

 

[Sea Turtle]

Did Biden give James Comey a pardon?

If the accusations against Comey by this whistleblower are true(the honeypot investigation kept off the books)how much trouble could he be in?

Meanwhile RFK out here saying "we have measles outbreaks all the time" after the first death on US soil in years.

Wasn't the death in an Amish community?

 

[IrishLax]

Yeah..we already do.

No kidding. He's the one passing it off as a way to erase the national debt.


Again..he is passing this off as an idea to pay off the debt.


No, it doesn't. 1. We already have a program that does this 2. There is no demand for this program at the investment levels he is talking about. EB-5 can't even meet it's cap goal at 20% of the investment goal Trump is talking about here.

Tell me you know nothing about immigration without saying it. At most universities, foreign students aren't displacing qualified American students.(More international students don’t mean fewer spots for Americans at U.S. colleges - Open Campus) (Source study: https://nfap.com/wp-content/uploads...nts-and-STEM.NFAP-Policy-Brief.April-2021.pdf)
Most universities are having issues even meeting enrollment goals. The enrollment cliff started a few years ago and looks to continue for the next decade...maybe longer. The influx of foreign students is American colleges and unis trying to supplement the declining domestic enrollment demographic.

Many companies are starting to tightly restrict OPT recipients because it doesn't have a long-term payoff for them. They don't end up sponsoring the students after the year of OPT is done due to the high cost and churn in general is a major issue for many of these corporations right now. It can depend on the field, a bit, and on the company a bit, but overall OPT is getting more difficult for F1 students to acquire as they exit school. In a difficult economy it's not as attractive a fiscal option as when many of these corps were swimming in money.

There is also scant evidence OPT adversely affects US job seekers. There is a study from during the first Trump term that backs this up.

https://nfap.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/International-Students-STEM-OPT-And-The-US-STEM-Workforce.NFAP-Policy-Brief.March-2019.pdf

OPT rates for international were already declining anyways. I think it's somewhere around 1 in 5 or 1 in 4. A vast majority of internationals don't even pursue it.
Edit: Fiscal Year 2023 it was at 23%..a slight bump from 2022 but still behind 2016/2017 peaks.

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12631#:~:text=In%20calendar%20year%20(CY)%202023,authorized%20to%20work%20via%20OPT.

The idea of the "Gold Card" is antithetical to the shrinking government anyways. You're going to need increased staffing to manage this program. USCIS/SEVIS/ICE/DHS is already incredibly backlogged. Adding another visa program to manage during a time when you are trying to reduce the federal workforce and arguably can't even manage the visa programs we have right now isn't a great operational strat.

Well I'm at a tier 1 engineering firm (real engineering, not software development) and have personally recruited directly from masters and Ph.D. programs. We have over the years had many people on H1B, OPT, etc. and have gone through the sponsorship process many times. I'm probably one of the few with hands on experience here. If you want to do a dick measuring contest on who knows more on how the industry works I'm happy to whip out my CV, awards, etc.

Bottom line is there are kids like this:

And you want me to believe that colleges aren't turning away qualified Americans for full freight paying internationals. I will bet any amount of money that you want that UC Davis, etc. took an international with worse scores than that kid. The pipeline is implicitly constructed at the undergraduate level and then onto masters programs to artificially exclude people with aptitude. Not much different than how the AMA artificially limits the amount of doctors in the United States when there are many more people "smart enough" to go to medical school than are let in.

It's incredibly easy to put together "studies" and other slop to make points that benefit big business. McKinsey has infamously been caught doing it. There are also countless examples of H1B abuse and big businesses losing/settling court cases over it and there are examples of recruiters saying "H1B only" (which is actually probably illegal?) for IT jobs that thousands of Americans are qualified for. I luckily do not deal with this at my company since foreign nationals we bring in from masters or Ph.D. programs are actually filling a specialized niche... and during the Great Recession we had to not renew H1Bs because there were out of work Americans qualified to do the jobs. That's not how companies like Disney operate.

Ignoring opinion for a second, here are the facts -- there are approximately 152k unemployed tech workers right now in the United States, that's the number as of February 2025. There are tens of thousands of H1B tech workers and per recent surveys approximately ~65% of H1Bs occupy a job formerly held by a US Citizen (but this number is obviously hard to pin down precisely). These numbers paint an inarguable picture regarding how visas are being used in that industry.

 

[NDVirginia19]

such an own goal to get the Tate brothers brought back to the US

 

[BuaConstrictor]

. If you want to do a dick measuring contest on who knows more on how the industry works I'm happy to whip out my CV, awards, etc.

I would love to. I work in immigration. So yes, I know more about immigration than you do.

The tweet you posted doesn't even make sense. I'm not even advocating for what happened to that student occurring, but positioning it as an issue of international students taking his spot is asinine.

And you want me to believe that colleges aren't turning away qualified Americans for full freight paying internationals.

And here is another example of how I know you have ZERO idea what you are talking about. Since the enrollment cliff and US college age demographic decline, the landscape of international college enrollment has changed in a major way. That market is so competitive now as schools try to supplement declining enrollment numbers that the pendulum has swung the other direction. There are many schools that are offering upwards of an 85-90% discount rate to get these students on campus just to show steady enrollment. They are no longer the profit center they were years ago.

What you're talking about is 2010-2018 era thinking. It's a poor financial plan for these schools but many are desperate to keep beds filled. I personally know schools recruiting students and those students are essentially being paid to go to school there after you factor in benefits received on campus.

Some of the visa intake information I see from a financial standpoint is jarring.

There are also countless examples of H1B abuse

I have never stated otherwise or denied that. In fact, I directly stipulated to that. I have no issues with rooting out issues with H1B abuse..and any other abuse having to do with any other visa or immigration pathway. It also requires dreaded government oversight of these businesses in order to have real punishments for the companies taking part in these practices. The issue isn't simply with the H1B's, it's also with the large firms taking advantage of them

Both things can be true. H1B visas need better processes and reformation and your assertions regarding international enrollment/admissions aren't factually or statistically supported or true.