The Foreign Workers of Mar-A-Lago

Srinivas Kuchibhotla, murdered H-1B worker

Trump opposes the use of guest workers “as cheap labor”—except for his own use of guest workers as cheap labor. This article is a good exposé of Trump’s hypocrisy, but the writer buys into the arguments of guest worker proponent Giovanni Peri that tech H-1B workers are “good for the economy.” No doubt these workers are much better paid than Trump’s hotel workers, but they’re still basically exploited in the same way as less skilled guest workers. And they too can be victims of violence-prone U.S. racists—TPOI editor

By Sheelah Kolhatkar, New Yorker

March 20, 2017 Issue

When it comes to America’s technology industry, Donald Trump takes a dim view of foreign workers. “I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program”—it provides visas for technical and skilled employees—“and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers for every visa and immigration program,” he said in a statement a year ago. “No exceptions.”

When it comes to the hospitality industry, though, Trump is much more, well, hospitable. His Administration recently made it harder to get H1-B visas, but he has expressed no objection to the visa category that hotels and resorts use—the H-2B—to attract low-cost, low-skilled seasonal labor. In fact, at Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach club, the visas are still in active use. Why the exception to the no-exception rule?[…]

Read the full article:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/20/the-foreign-workers-of-mar-a-lago