What President Trump giveth, he taketh away.  That is the story of the Trump Administration.  Actually, it's a story of his appointees battling it out behind the scenes; some seeking to sabotage his administration like Rod Rosenstein and Kirstjen Nielsen; others seeking to implement the 2016 Donald John Trump policies into action.  Personnel is policy, and with a divided cadre in his administration, President Trump gets convoluted policy, and every day we get more examples of this infighting.  This week we got leaks of a policy to end employment-based Non-Immigrant Visas (NIV), most notably the notorious H-1B NIV used by the tech giants to drive down wages of highly skilled American workers.  Interestingly, we only get the truth from the Indian press.

First, there is a renewed fight over employment based NIVs inside the Trump Administration as unemployment reaches 14%, with over 20 million Americans out of work.

The US is working to temporarily ban the issuance of some work-based visas like H-1B, popular among highly-skilled Indian IT professionals, as well as student visas and work authorisation [sic] that accompanies them, amid the high level of unemployment due to the coronavirus, according to a media report on Friday.

The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers from countries like India and China in speciality [sic] occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Nearly 500,000 migrant workers are employed in the US in the H-1B status.

“The president’s immigration advisers are drawing up plans for a coming executive order, expected this month, that would ban the issuance of some new temporary, work-based visas,” The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

“The order is expected to focus on visa categories including H-1B, designed for highly skilled workers, and H-2B, for seasonal migrant workers, as well as student visas and the work authorisation [sic] that accompanies them,” it said.

[Trump Govt Working To Temporarily Ban H-1B, Other Work Visas,Press Trust of India/The Week, May 9, 2020]

Now, the first order from the Trump Administration was deliberately sabotaged by Jared Kushner at the behest of the tech giants, particularly Tim Cook of Apple.  And it went over like a lead balloon, unsatisfying to President Trump’s base and evoking more tirades about racism on the left even though it stopped little immigration.

But the very same week, the Trump Administration went into Federal court and asked the court to not impose an almost certain upcoming ruling to end the Obama Regime give-away of employment authorization to some H-4 NIV holders, who are not authorized employment by law.

The underlying court case is that American and legal permanent resident tech workers were suing to end the Obama Regime gift of employment authorization to certain dependents of H-1B NIV holders who were adjusting status to legal permanent resident.  The lawsuit demanded an end to the program because it adversely impacted those employed in tech by driving down wages and was illegally created.  Worse yet, the Trump Administration had started the process to end the rule, then chickened out, all thanks to Kushner.  While the number may be small, in a full-employment economy allowing this is one thing, with over 14 million unemployed, it is unconscionable.

In a major development, the Donald Trump administration has urged a federal district court not to block an Obama-era rule allowing certain categories of spouses of H-1B visa-holders to work in the US.

In a submission before the US District Court in Washington this week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) argued that the American technology workers, who had challenged the 2015 ruling on giving work permits to H-4 visa-holders, have not been irreparably harmed by such work authorisation [sic].

An H-4 visa is issued by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to the immediate family members (spouse and children under 21 years of age) of the H-1B visa-holders, most of whom are Indian IT professionals. It is normally issued to those who have already started the process of seeking employment-based lawful permanent resident status.

The DHS, in its submission on May 5, said the argument by Save Jobs USA on behalf of American technology workers “only speculates about potential economic harm to its members, based on five-year-old affidavits”.

In its lawsuit filed in 2015, Save Jobs USA had argued that the regulation issued by the Obama administration to provide employment authorisation [sic] for certain H4 dependent spouses harms their members, who are American technology workers.

After coming to power, the Trump administration in December 2017 informed the court that it plans to rescind the Obama-era regulations in this regard. Since then, it told the court about half-a-dozen times about its intention to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). However, the DHS has not rescinded “Employment Authorisation for Certain H-4 Dependent Spouses” of 2015.

[Trump Govt Urges Court Not To Block Work Permits To Spouses Of H-1B Visa-Holders, unattributed, PTI/The Week, May 9, 2020]

How did this happen?  Again, personnel is policy.  And some personnel are sabotaging the Trump Administration and harming the American worker.  Who is it?  Kushner for certain.  I don’t see Based Bill Barr having much interest in this issue, but where is Ken The Knife Cuccinelli?  I suspect Not So Chad Wolf, but he is not yet in Kevin McAleenan territory.  So, for convenience, I will assign the blame to the obvious suspect, Kushner.  But President Trump is to blame, the buck stops with him.  He needs to get control of his Administration, if only to save his own bacon from indictment if he loses in November.