Byron York: The challenge to Trump's order? It's a lot about money By BYRON YORK <http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/author/byron-york> ( @BYRONYORK <http://twitter.com/ByronYork>) • 2/7/17 4:13 PM
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/byron-york-the-challenge-to-trumps-order-its-a-lot-about-money/article/2614169?platform=hootsuite Why is Washington State mounting such a vigorous challenge to President Trump <http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/section/donald-trump>'s executive order temporarily suspending non-American entry from seven terrorism-plagued countries? Of course there are several lawsuits against the president, and there are lots of motives among the various litigants. But Washington State's is the suit that stopped the order, at least temporarily. And a look at the state's case suggests that, behind high-minded rhetoric about religious liberty and constitutional protections, there is a lot of money at stake. Judging by the briefs filed by Washington State, as well as statements made by its representatives, some of the state's top priorities in challenging Trump are: 1) To ensure an uninterrupted supply of relatively low-wage H-1B foreign workers for Microsoft and other state businesses; 2) To ensure a continuing flow of high-tuition-paying foreign student visa holders; and 3) To preserve the flow of tax revenues that results from those and other sources. To the first factor, Washington State argued that its residents have suffered from the Trump order, or might suffer in the future, because some of the state's biggest businesses rely on H-1B visas, which are often used to bring foreign workers to U.S. companies at lower wages than their American counterparts. "The technology industry relies heavily on the H-1B visa program," the Washington State lawsuit said. "Microsoft, a corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, is the state's top employer of high-tech — or H-1B visa holders and employs nearly 5,000 people through the program. Other Washington-based companies, including Amazon, Expedia, and Starbucks, employ thousands of H-1B visa holders."be today to get intelligence and analysis on defense and national security issues in your Inbox each weekday morning from veteran journalists Jamie McIntyre and Jacqueline Kl"Many of those immigrant workers," the lawsuit added, "are from Muslim-majority countries." That alone is a major financial issue at stake in the state's argument. Tech companies — many of whom filed amicus briefs supporting Washington State — "want an expansion of the H-1B work visa program because they want to hire cheap, immobile labor — i.e., foreign workers," wrote University of California Davis computer science professor Norm Matloff <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-h-1b_us_5890d86ce4b0522c7d3d84af> in the Huffington Post recently. Trump's order could threaten that, if only in a relatively small way. In subsequent filings, Washington State's lawyers have emphasized the economic damage the state would sustain from any interruption in the flow of lower-wage H-1B visa holders. "Amazon, Expedia, and Microsoft depend on skilled immigrants, and the [Trump] order diminished their ability to recruit," a recent filing said. At a Feb. 3 news conference, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson specifically thanked Amazon and Expedia for their help in the case. On the second factor, the Washington State lawsuit points to deep concern about the effect the Trump order might have on foreign students at state universities. The order "caused immediate harm to Washington's public universities, which are state agencies," the state's most recent filing said. International students, it turns out, are a major source of revenue for Washington State. "Only three other states — Massachusetts, New York and Delaware — plus the District of Columbia drew a higher percentage of its college population from overseas," the Seattle Times reported <http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/more-international-students-at-washington-colleges/> in November 2014. "Washington's universities and community colleges have welcomed international students, in part, as a boost to their budgets because they pay as much as three times the tuition that in-state students pay." -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
