The latest move even forces spouses of US citizens to leave the country before they can apply for a Green Card. Why? No reason except spite. Hating on foreigners is good politics.
And then all sorts of people will come out of the woodwork to try to explain that this is all normal and fine, and that nobody should be upset by it.
The last time the U.S. had this level of foreign born population, it enacted extremely restrictive immigration laws and the foreign born population dropped from 15% to under 5%.
Yes, the US has had other xenophobic phases in its history. That doesn't justify the new wave of xenophobic politics.
The law was marketed to voters as a temporary worker program. That’s not what it ended up being. That’s the bait and switch.
> Yes, the US has had other xenophobic phases in its history. That doesn't justify the new wave of xenophobic politic
The immigration restriction was necessary to Americanize the immigrants culturally and dissolve their foreign identities and affinity for their own cultural groups. It was fairly successful, too!
It’s bizarre to have to explain this concept on HN. Silicon Valley companies spend so much time on culture and fit, and with good reason. Cultivating a successful culture is extremely important. It’s curation, not “xenophobia.”
The law should do what it was designed to do. The H1 system reflects a compromise between people who wanted skilled workers and those who didn’t want foreigners becoming permanent residents. So the compromise was a temporary worker program where most people would go home afterwards.
The law should be interpreted to give effect to that compromise. Your approach of streamlining immigration wipes away that compromise.
