Trump's H-1B visa fee isn't just about immigration, it's about fealty (Article from The Verge on an "enormous loophole")

[highplainsdem]

https://www.theverge.com/report/782289/trumps-h-1b-visa-fee-isnt-about-immigration-its-about-fealty

Donald Trump has never made his distaste for immigrants a secret. It’s been a cornerstone of his political movement since he descended that escalator on June 16th, 2015 and started hurling racist vitriol in the general direction of Mexico and Mexican Americans. On the surface, his assault on the H-1B visa program seems like part of the White House’s ongoing campaign to reduce the number of immigrants in the country. It might have that effect, but the biggest goal for Trump may not be forcing companies to hire more Americans or cutting down on the number of workers from India moving to the US. It’s giving the government more leverage over his perceived enemies, particularly the world of tech.

See, buried in the fine print of section 1, subsection (c) is this clause:
The restriction imposed pursuant to subsections (a) and (b) of this section shall not apply to any individual alien, all aliens working for a company, or all aliens working in an industry, if the Secretary of Homeland Security determines, in the Secretary’s discretion, that the hiring of such aliens to be employed as H-1B specialty occupation workers is in the national interest and does not pose a threat to the security or welfare of the United States.

In short, it seems like the Secretary of Homeland Security can exempt any person, company, or even an entire industry from the travel restrictions and the $100,000 at their (or more likely, the president’s) discretion. It’s this carveout that betrays a major purpose of the proclamation.

The tech industry and Donald Trump were long at odds with each other, even if the president has largely brought it to heel in his second term. The White House has already made a big show of making tech CEOs trip over themselves to see who can fawn the hardest over Trump or wow him with the gaudiest gift. Now, it can wring further concessions and flattery out of the likes of Satya Nadella, lest he have to choose between dropping half-a-billion dollars on visa fees or replacing over 5,000 highly-skilled employees.

-snip-

The article goes on to point out that the financial industry (JP Morgan Chase, for instance) and colleges also use a lot of H1-B visas.