[HN Gopher] Facebook settles federal lawsuit over allegations it...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Facebook settles federal lawsuit over allegations it favored
       foreign applicants
        
       Author : koolba
       Score  : 115 points
       Date   : 2021-10-20 12:38 UTC (10 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.npr.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.npr.org)
        
       | ldjkfkdsjnv wrote:
       | I actually dont think its the corporation doing this, its just
       | their ranks are filled with mostly H1Bs, who want to hire other
       | H1Bs from their home countries. This practice is absolutely
       | rampant in tech companies. Orgs and departments commonly organize
       | along racial and country of origin lines. I see this at some of
       | the most well known tech companies. Yet I never hear a word
       | spoken of it
        
         | R0b0t1 wrote:
         | This happens at Sprint/T-Mobile. It's gotten to the point I've
         | seen people talking about how hard it is to get hired as a US
         | citizen.
        
         | triceratops wrote:
         | You're essentially saying the practice of using referrals in
         | hiring should be ended.
        
           | ldjkfkdsjnv wrote:
           | thats not what I'm saying at all
        
           | stadium wrote:
           | Paid referrals do get people in the door quickly, but at a
           | cost of low diversity and homogenized skills and backgrounds.
        
             | lostmsu wrote:
             | I would challenge the use of word "cost" here, unless you
             | have corroborating data.
        
               | stadium wrote:
               | First google result for "organizational cost of low
               | diversity":
               | 
               | https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/acce
               | ntu...
        
               | lostmsu wrote:
               | I am not sure why you equate diversity with inclusion.
               | It's hard to see why members of a team 100% consisting of
               | folks from Laos would feel less "included" in the
               | work/company life than a team of 80% folks from Laos and
               | 20% from Peru.
        
               | stadium wrote:
               | It's generally accepted now that more diversity has
               | multiple business benefits, from IC level up to board of
               | directors. And paid referrals tend to attract similar
               | demographics and backgrounds. I only have anecdotal data.
               | 
               | I honestly didn't read the article, Google can give you
               | more info/data than I can. I vaguely recall HBR has had
               | some good articles on it the last couple of years.
        
               | lostmsu wrote:
               | I'll take it as no data then.
        
               | twofornone wrote:
               | That link is blatant propaganda.
               | 
               | >number of inclusion topics, including the ability to
               | fail without fear, the ability to report harassment, and
               | the flexibility to work from home.
               | 
               | Deliberately conflating "diversity and inclusion" with
               | problems that have nothing to actually do with with
               | gender/race.
               | 
               | >Analysts found that companies where many employees felt
               | engaged were more likely to demonstrate higher profit
               | growth. Closing the gap by 50%, or making employees feel
               | more included, pointed to a 33% increase in global profit
               | growth for businesses.
               | 
               | And then pulling numbers out of their asses based on a
               | correlation between "employee engagement" and profit
               | growth.
               | 
               | This is what happens when politics suppress open
               | discussion; research becomes one-sided and our policies
               | myopically tread down a narrow path to dysfunction.
               | 
               | The idea that skin color, gender, and/or sexuality have
               | any bearing on the performance of a team is, ironically
               | blatantly racist/sexist. I don't understand how people
               | don't collapse under the weight of such a cognitive
               | dissonance.
        
         | twofornone wrote:
         | It's the ugly side of diversity. When everyone's so busy being
         | "antiracist" they turn a blind eye to racism from the
         | "underprivileged". There's this mass delusion that only one
         | ethnic group is capable of racism, and when they are on the
         | receiving end it's deserved.
        
       | lhorie wrote:
       | So if I'm reading this right, this seems to be about PERM
       | applications.
       | 
       | For context, PERM certification is a required step in the green
       | card application, where a company sponsoring a green card
       | applicant must demonstrate that they posted a job ad for the
       | candidate's position somewhere conspicuous for a sufficient
       | amount of time and that they were not able to find a qualified
       | American applicant.
       | 
       | Where this gets iffy is that because this is part of a green card
       | sponsorship, this is always an advertisement for a position that
       | is already filled by the H1-B holder, who typically has already
       | been at working in that capacity for at least a year, and who
       | literally is only engaging in this process because they intend to
       | immigrate and become a US permanent resident.
       | 
       | There's literally zero incentive for any company to boot an
       | already productive H1-B holder in favor of some random new hire
       | just because of their nationality. Typically, the way this is
       | justified is that the hypothetical new hire must demonstrate the
       | ability to be as productive as the H1-B holder, including having
       | context on the project. Otherwise, it would just cost the company
       | time and money to fire the employed person and hire/onboard the
       | new one for no benefit to the company whatsoever. It would indeed
       | be doubly bad from a reputation perspective since then foreign
       | talent would definitely avoid applying to a company that just
       | boots people and leaves them out in the cold with an invalid
       | residency status forcing them to move back to their home country
       | in a month's window. The justification that companies can't find
       | the talent in the country boils down to that: where were these so
       | called qualified american candidates a year prior to the PERM
       | application? IF they existed then, the company would certainly
       | have preferred to hire them because H1-B/PERM/green card
       | sponsorship actually costs quite a bit of money to the company.
       | 
       | Now, I may be biased, since I'm a green card holder myself, but
       | the thing with PERM is that the H1-B engagement is a mutual
       | investment which started at least a year prior to PERM coming
       | into the picture in the first place (it's an investment by the
       | company, in terms of finding and onboarding a new person and
       | getting them to be productive, as well as by the employee, who
       | works to build context and become necessary to the company). Is
       | it "fair" that one person ought to have the right to just come in
       | after the fact and enjoy the fruits of other people's investments
       | just because of their nationality, especially considering that
       | this entails a losing party who for all intents and purposes was
       | already a productive member of American society working towards
       | acquiring permanent residency status?
        
       | 1cvmask wrote:
       | From the article:
       | 
       | The government said Facebook intentionally created a hiring
       | system in which it denied qualified U.S. workers a fair
       | opportunity to learn about and apply for jobs that it instead
       | sought to channel to temporary visa holders.
       | 
       | -
       | 
       | At the scale Facebook operates at and the number of employees
       | they hire it makes a huge material advantage for them to hire
       | cheaper foreigners for the same task. It is rational behavior.
       | Foreigners are always cheaper for the same task at hand.
       | 
       | The fine they paid is a fraction of their cost savings over the
       | years. Many companies in Silicon Valley deliberately target
       | cheaper foreigners than Americans.
       | 
       | It is pure economics and FB has that built into their hiring
       | model at scale.
       | 
       | The only way to eliminate foreigners undercutting American
       | salaries is to eliminate the foreign labor supply competition.
       | 
       | That of course will not happen as all the big corporations
       | promote all the alphabet soup of visas ranging from F1 to H1 to
       | others.
       | 
       | STEM jobs are the ones foreigners can compete in and depress the
       | salaries of Americans in SV. The jobs that are not at as much
       | risk are the ones that require command of the culture and
       | language and the lay of the land like enterprise sales and
       | marketing functions.
        
         | laurencerowe wrote:
         | > At the scale Facebook operates at and the number of employees
         | they hire it makes a huge material advantage for them to hire
         | cheaper foreigners for the same task. It is rational behavior.
         | Foreigners are always cheaper for the same task at hand.
         | 
         | In this case though the foreign workers are getting green cards
         | that make it much easier for them to work somewhere else.
         | 
         | > The only way to eliminate foreigners undercutting American
         | salaries is to eliminate the foreign labor supply competition.
         | 
         | Isn't this the 'lump of labor' fallacy? Immigration also
         | creates demand in the countries immigrants move to. The
         | evidence seems to be fairly clear that it doesn't depress wages
         | on average: https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/why-immigration-
         | doesnt-red...
         | 
         | > STEM jobs are the ones foreigners can compete in and depress
         | the salaries of Americans in SV. The jobs that are not at as
         | much risk are the ones that require command of the culture and
         | language and the lay of the land like enterprise sales and
         | marketing functions.
         | 
         | Yet it's these same SV engineering jobs that have seen enormous
         | wage increases over the past decade.
         | 
         | I do think there is potential for restrictive immigration
         | schemes to depress wages by making it hard for people on those
         | schemes to change jobs. That was certainly my experience on a
         | cap-exempt academic H1B where I was ineligible to transfer to a
         | commercial employer as cap-subject H1B employees are allowed to
         | do.
         | 
         | The solution to that is to make sure such immigrants get green
         | cards relatively quickly so they can't be exploited by
         | employers.
        
         | firstfewshells wrote:
         | I think you're living in a bubble if you still believe
         | foreigners working at FAANG are underpaid compared to the
         | native population. You are paid as per your level.
        
         | mataug wrote:
         | > The only way to eliminate foreigners undercutting American
         | salaries is to eliminate the foreign labor supply competition.
         | 
         | The problem isn't foreign labor supply, its that the foreign
         | nationals are forced to stick around at bad employers due to
         | the way US immigration is tied to employment instead of
         | credentials and skills.
         | 
         | Comparing US and Canada, A foreign national in Canada who
         | graduates from a STEM degree, and obtains a job, gets to apply
         | for Permanent residency which is not tied to an employer.
         | 
         | On the otherhand in the US the visa (H1B, L1, O1) are all tied
         | to the employer, which means leaving a bad job is difficult to
         | impossible without jeopardizing their legal status in the
         | country.
         | 
         | So FB has all incentives for hiring foreign nationals who have
         | no choice but to stick around at a company that treats them
         | poorly / underpays them.
         | 
         | TL;DR the problem isn't the foreign national or the visas, its
         | that the US immigration system ties visas to a single employer.
        
           | hash872 wrote:
           | >the US immigration system ties visas to a single employer
           | 
           | While this is true for the L1 and one other (I believe J1), I
           | don't understand why people believes this to be true for
           | H1Bs. It's simply false- H1Bs can transfer employers, it just
           | takes a couple of weeks and some paperwork, and thousands do
           | it every year. I know a number of folks professionally who've
           | done it without hassle, and I know a couple people in my
           | personal life who've also transferred.
           | 
           | There is a period when an employer has sponsored you for a
           | Green Card that you probably can't switch, but after the EAD
           | is issued you're free to transfer employers again. Basically,
           | 'H1Bs are tied a single employer' is a widespread urban
           | legend
           | 
           | https://www.immi-usa.com/h1b-visa/h1b-visa-transfer/
           | https://thevisaproject.com/experience/us/h1b-transfer-
           | premiu...
        
             | NovemberWhiskey wrote:
             | H-1B visas _are_ tied to a specific employer. The fact that
             | you can move between different employers who will
             | individually agree to sponsor a H-1B position doesn 't
             | change that fact.
             | 
             | This is fine when you're talking about moving between large
             | companies with the apparatus to do that, but it does mean
             | that H-1B holders have fewer opportunities with smaller
             | employers or those who simply aren't willing to go through
             | the paperwork.
        
             | nrmitchi wrote:
             | > H1Bs can transfer employers, it just takes a couple of
             | weeks and some paperwork
             | 
             | My understanding is that yes, this is technically true.
             | However it's not a H1B holder _telling_ the government
             | "I'm taking this new job, FYI", as much as requesting that
             | your transfer be approved. The risk that the transfer will
             | not be, and you're stuck in limbo of returning to the
             | position you just quit, does exist.
             | 
             | For people on these statuses, any required interaction with
             | USCIS can be anxiety inducing.
             | 
             | While it may not _technically_ be tied to a single
             | employer, it 's not fair to say that holders have the same
             | flexibility to switch jobs as permanent residents/citizens.
        
               | 988747 wrote:
               | Yes, US immigration system is a mess. I considered
               | emigrating there once, but I would never agree to the
               | kind of slavery that comes with H-1B visa or similar.
               | Last few years, I've been submitting my application for
               | Green Card lottery, because winning it is pretty much the
               | only way of emigrating that doesn't suck, despite small
               | chances of being selected.
        
       | PrinceRichard wrote:
       | Why is this a problem? Why are we trying to manipulate Facebook's
       | hiring practices? We may not like it, but they should be free to
       | hire whomever they please.
        
         | fasteddie31003 wrote:
         | I'd recommend looking into H1B laws. By law you can only give
         | out H1B visas if you cannot find an American worker to do the
         | job.
        
           | nrmitchi wrote:
           | This may also be a nit-picking response, but the sponsoring
           | company is not the one "giving out" H1B visas. They can
           | sponsor it, and request it, but visas are only issued by the
           | US government.
        
           | NovemberWhiskey wrote:
           | Actually, recommend _you_ read into it at a little as you 're
           | completely wrong on that point.
           | 
           | An H-1B only requires a Labor Condition Application (LCA)
           | which is basically an agreement to pay the prevailing wage
           | and an assertion that there's not an ongoing labor dispute
           | (strike, lockout) ongoing at the proposed location of hire.
        
             | gimmeThaBeet wrote:
             | From what I've seen is there is a clause that says some
             | employers have to try to recruit U.S. workers when seeking
             | H-1B employees.
             | 
             | However, from what I understood, it only applies employers
             | who have been designated H-1B dependent (something like 15%
             | of their workforce is H-1B) or something like that, or were
             | identified abusers of the program. And even then, there is
             | a salary limit, i.e. if you are paying over $X (which I am
             | assuming facebook is), even if you're workforce is a high
             | enough proportion H-1B you would be dependent, you are
             | still exempt.
        
       | silexia wrote:
       | How would one go about collecting money from being denied
       | employment at Facebook in favor of an H1B applicant?
        
         | sriram_sun wrote:
         | The larger question is how would you collect money from any
         | settlement? The same rules apply.
        
         | micromacrofoot wrote:
         | I'd guess you'd have to start by figuring out if the role you
         | applied for went to a H1B applicant, and then hire a lawyer to
         | see if a lawsuit would be viable.
        
           | VRay wrote:
           | I wonder if you could make a business out of helping
           | qualified US residents apply to these fake job postings and
           | suing the companies when they get turned down..
        
       | therealbilly wrote:
       | Honestly, the IT market is seriously broken. It's every person
       | for themselves now. Nobody is looking out for you. Get your
       | equipment, build your lab and do remote work.
        
       | whoevercares wrote:
       | Oh no the package of FB SDE offer will shrink... previously they
       | are giving huge package because shortage from the fact they can't
       | do PERM. Too bad we didn't catch the train
        
       | aaomidi wrote:
       | H1B program needs a 2-3 year pathway to permanent residency.
       | 
       | Your continued life in a country shouldn't depend on a private
       | company.
        
         | chinchilla2020 wrote:
         | It already is about 2-3 years
        
           | nsenifty wrote:
           | Except if you are from China, or India.
        
             | aaomidi wrote:
             | And they're the majority of H1B too.
        
         | BeetleB wrote:
         | Disregarding slowdowns due to both Trump's slashing of funding
         | and COVID, for the majority of H-1B holders, it is a 2-3 year
         | pathway.
         | 
         | People think otherwise because they have a special (very
         | lengthy) backlog for Indians, and to some extent Chinese. Until
         | about 2018, if you were from another country, 3 years was
         | longer than the average to convert H-1B to a Green Card. Lots
         | of people would get it in less than 2 years.
        
           | toast0 wrote:
           | Are you sure the majority of H-1B holders aren't in that
           | lengthy backlog? If this random page [1] is close to correct,
           | people from India were granted half the H-1Bs, and China
           | another nearly 10%, so it already started witrh a majority
           | being backlogged from issuance, then as others clear the
           | backlog in say 3 years and these take much longer, the holder
           | demographic becomes even more of a majority of people waiting
           | for the giant backlog.
           | 
           | I'm still not really sure why there's such a strict limit on
           | green cards per country of origin, when countries have such a
           | wide variety of population or even area. What if India
           | decided they wanted to make things easier for expatriates as
           | well as increase their influence wherever number of countries
           | count and break into the 28 states and 8 union territories.
           | 
           | Suddenly, they could get a 35 more votes at the UN and a ton
           | more green cards. They could all be individual countries,
           | under the banner of the Indian Union which sets fiscal policy
           | and manages the currency and provide for common defense.
           | There's plenty of space in the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 namespace
           | for 36 new entities, and there's lots of good reasons to do
           | it!
           | 
           | [1] https://www.h1b.io/blog/gets-visas-many-countries/
        
             | kfprt wrote:
             | The risk there is that some states might start deciding
             | that they want to do something different than what everyone
             | else wants, and they'd be a country afterall.
        
           | cplanas wrote:
           | If I remember correctly, the majority of H-1B holders (around
           | 2 thirds) are Indians. Adding Chinese, it gets up to 80%.
           | 
           | PD: I just checked the numbers. I found this: https://www.usc
           | is.gov/sites/default/files/document/data/h-1b.... Indians and
           | Chinese make up to 90% of H-1B petitioners.
        
             | BeetleB wrote:
             | My first thought was "Wow!". But some analysis:
             | 
             | The Indian numbers are "inflated" as their backlog is high
             | (i.e. they have to petition to renew their H-1B multiple
             | times) - so for example if it takes 12 years for an Indian
             | to get the GC, they petitioned 4-5 times and the
             | "equivalent" percentage is really about a quarter of the
             | figure shown. Whereas a South Korean likely will get the GC
             | without petitioning a second time, so their numbers remain
             | small.
             | 
             | Put another way, if the wait times for Indians was under 3
             | years, then about 75% or more of the people listed in the
             | Indian count would have gotten their GC a while ago, and
             | would not be counted.
             | 
             | When you adjust for this inflation, it's not obvious that
             | India + China is > 50%. Nevertheless, I agree it is a
             | significant percentage.
        
       | fay59 wrote:
       | For context, a worker on an H1-B can be in the US for a total 6
       | years. Within that time frame, their employer can sponsor them
       | for a green card, which allows them to stay indefinitely and keep
       | the job. However, through the lens of the government, what
       | actually happens in this transition is that the H1-B worker's job
       | disappears and a new job appears. The H1-B employee must apply to
       | this job and compete fairly with Americans for it. If they come
       | out winning, they can get a green card. Otherwise, the American
       | gets the job and the foreigner goes home, probably. These job
       | offers have to be posted in a variety of ways endorsed by the
       | government.
       | 
       | From my read looking at other articles on the matter
       | (https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/facebook-face-
       | claim...), Facebook is accused of not circulating enough these
       | job postings to and making it too easy for the non-American they
       | already hired to keep their job. They're not creating jobs that
       | entire populations except the US can see.
        
         | huy-nguyen wrote:
         | You're right. What Facebook is accused of is not putting enough
         | effort into recruiting US workers to show that there's no
         | qualified US worker for the Green Card "positions" that H1B
         | workers have to "apply" to.
        
       | tediousdemise wrote:
       | Work visas are used as a method of coercion by US companies, and
       | Facebook knows how effective employees can be when they are
       | coerced.
       | 
       | I knew of a professor with a work visa who spoke out against a
       | University policy of oversizing certain classes. They revoked or
       | did not renew his visa (or however the termination of an
       | employer-sponsored visa works), and mid-semester he had a nervous
       | breakdown, was forced to short sell his house, and was forced to
       | go back to his home country.
        
       | literallyaduck wrote:
       | When can we sign up for a class action on wage depression?
        
       | kache_ wrote:
       | Of course. More exploitable
        
       | jaywalk wrote:
       | Up to $14.25 million in fines and restitution for defrauding the
       | H-1B program and screwing over US citizens. Facebook won't even
       | blink an eye at that amount. How about barring them from the H-1B
       | program for 5 years? I think that would be a great start.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | justapassenger wrote:
         | FAANGs are always hiring. Any US citizen, who's qualified, can
         | get a job there at any point in time.
        
           | tapatio wrote:
           | "who's qualified"
           | 
           | I suspect the qualifications are different depending on your
           | citizenship.
        
             | joshuamorton wrote:
             | Why would this be? Citizens and residents get the same pay
             | and benefits. If anything, employing a noncitizen is more
             | work because you have to manage the whole immigration
             | process.
             | 
             | What's in it for the company?
        
               | mint2 wrote:
               | Not really, if they aren't attracting domestic talent
               | when they post a job at $xyz but would have if they would
               | pay $qrs, but instead of increasing their offers they go
               | find an H1b that will take $xyz then it's suppressing
               | wages and cheaper for the company in the long run
        
               | NovemberWhiskey wrote:
               | It would also be illegal.
        
             | justapassenger wrote:
             | I've been recruited by different FAANGs, and was also
             | actively recruiting people at them. Your suspicions are
             | wrong.
             | 
             | Bar is the same (of course, there will some bias from
             | specific people, but those are one-offs). Even more -
             | hiring H1Bs is harder than hiring a citizen and it's more
             | costly to the company (immigration sucks). If they could,
             | they wouldn't hire H1Bs.
             | 
             | Equation is different at sweatshops, where you don't hire
             | specific people, that meet specific bars you have. They
             | have no bars - they just need code/ops/qa monkeys. They
             | apply for as many visas as you can, and get whoever they
             | can get as a result. As long as they got enough people,
             | they're happy.
        
               | Taylor_OD wrote:
               | You are over simplifying a bit. Yes it may cost more to
               | hire a H1B due to legal costs but only a small amount
               | more at companies of this size. They have teams of people
               | who handle that.
               | 
               | H1B workers are often paid less that citizens. In the
               | long run it is probably cheaper to hire H1B workers even
               | after the legal costs.
        
               | justapassenger wrote:
               | > H1B workers are often paid less that citizens
               | 
               | At sweatshops. Not at FAANGs.
        
         | mc32 wrote:
         | They should revoke the right of any employer who egregiously
         | violates the program like this. Then have them build programs
         | to get under served communities (urban and rural) to get up to
         | speed; grade them on effectiveness and fine them if
         | ineffective.
        
           | commandlinefan wrote:
           | Well, you're assuming that they actually want the law
           | enforced in this case and aren't just lightly slapping wrists
           | for appearance's sake.
        
         | newfonewhodis wrote:
         | That would be more punitive to prospective employees and
         | students than to Facebook itself.
        
         | SteveGerencser wrote:
         | Agreed. If the NCAA catches you buying dinner for a college
         | athlete you can lose a number of scholarships for several
         | years. Why wouldn't these violation of H1Bs come along with a
         | fine and a loss of H1B access for x number of years? That would
         | go a long way toward solving the problem.
        
           | jimbob45 wrote:
           | Say what you will about the NCAA but they do a good job
           | ensuring a level playing field for all college athletes
           | (despite being Nazis while doing it).
           | 
           | It's no fun hearing about poor athletes struggling to eat at
           | college but, at the very least, the Manziels and the Gurleys
           | of the US are held to an identical standard and that counts
           | for something.
        
             | short12 wrote:
             | The scandals say otherwise. They are absolutely terrible at
             | it.
             | 
             | The only efficiency they excel at is screwing over the
             | players
        
           | 8note wrote:
           | That sounds like the player, who _should_ be paid millions
           | for plying gets punished for receiving the dinner, rather
           | than the school.
           | 
           | The equivalent would be banning the H1b holder from the US.
           | The NCAA is the model to follow if you want to make something
           | more exploitative, not less
        
         | murbard2 wrote:
         | If they actually had a case against Facebook and Facebook had
         | caused actual harm the amount would be much higher.
        
           | jaywalk wrote:
           | It's already the largest amount ever recovered in a case of
           | this nature. The fact is simply that, just like in so many
           | other cases, the penalties are so low that it's just a cost
           | of doing business for these large corporations.
        
           | nsenifty wrote:
           | Facebook probably only settled it instead of choosing to
           | fight because it is barred from filling green cards while the
           | case is still in progress, hurting its employees and its
           | ability to hire.
           | 
           | Any company that has successfully filed an employment green
           | card (especially at that scale) is favoring immigrants over
           | citizens by definition. The EB green card rules are highly
           | outdated and a reform is long overdue.
        
             | Taylor_OD wrote:
             | Yeah I know at least a half dozen folks who didnt join
             | facebook or seriously thought about passing on facebook
             | this year due to the greencard processing issues.
             | Recruiters told them, "Zuck says it will be figured out by
             | the end of the year" and I guess he was right.
        
           | throwfaangus wrote:
           | Facebook "refused to recruit, consider, or hire qualified and
           | available U.S. workers for over 2,600 positions."
        
             | fsociety wrote:
             | The lawsuit was really about FB converting H1B workers, of
             | whom they already hired, into permanent US workers. They
             | post a PERM position and then have to apply the H1B worker
             | to it due to outdated immigration laws.
             | 
             | They argued that a company should not be able to do that if
             | they can hire a minimally qualified US candidate, AKA
             | someone who checks the job requirements.
        
         | 1234letshaveatw wrote:
         | I love that suggestion, it would be impactful and resonate more
         | with other employers than some arbitrary financial figure
        
         | FpUser wrote:
         | Should actual private person defraud on this scale it is jail
         | time. But of course directors of big corporations are "more
         | equal" than the rest. And the amount of fine is laughable.
        
         | NovemberWhiskey wrote:
         | No, this is not about H-1B visas. If you read the article
         | carefully you'll see this is about employment-based immigrant
         | visas - i.e. green cards.
        
           | giobox wrote:
           | A green card is _not_ an employment based immigrant visa or
           | even a visa at all - the H-1B is. A green card holder has
           | permanent residency and can apply for largely any job a US
           | citizen can. Further they are not required to leave the
           | country on becoming unemployed.
           | 
           | The immigrant visa is usually a stepping stone to permanent
           | residency via a green card though, and this lawsuit is
           | absolutely related to that process - when applying for
           | permanent residency (green card) on an H-1B, the employer
           | must supposedly prove they couldn't hire an American to do
           | same job. This is usually called the "PERM process".
           | 
           | There has always been a gray area as to what that standard
           | means, I've seen different companies interpret it very
           | differently. When we talk about employment based immigrant
           | visas and Facebook, it is overwhelmingly the H-1B (the data
           | on visas issued is public).
        
       | papito wrote:
       | This is an insult to all the slaps on the wrist around the world.
        
       | Taylor_OD wrote:
       | The fine is like 8 E7 salaries. Insane how little money that is
       | for facebook. The much greater impact would have been delaying
       | greencard processing for longer. They probably laughed when they
       | found out that is all the fine would be.
        
       | schnable wrote:
       | I am supportive of visas for highly skilled workers and
       | immigration in general. However I see many H1-Bs being hired that
       | are frankly overqualified for the work they are end up doing
       | (especially stuff like exploratory QA or entry level operations
       | tasks). I'm not sure we need to import people to do this work.
       | 
       | I think the tech industry in the US should be looking at American
       | non-college graduates to do this kind of work, especially people
       | from families without a history of college degrees. This would be
       | easier than teaching people how to code and it would be a great
       | foot in the door to the tech industry and a solid middle class
       | career, even if they never become coders.
        
         | pc86 wrote:
         | I'm not sure it's a good idea to take someone's family history
         | into account when determining whether or not they're qualified
         | to do a certain job. Why should the fact that someone's
         | grandfather went to college hurt them in getting one of these
         | jobs for "people from families without a history of college
         | degrees"?
         | 
         | Even if you think this is good for purposes of equity or
         | whatever, how far back do you go? My maternal grandfather was
         | an attorney but neither of my parents went to college. Which
         | group do I fit into?
        
           | tediousdemise wrote:
           | This is why most attempts to wrong historical injustices
           | (umbrella term "reparations") are morally questionable.
           | 
           | Frankly, I think they are very bad, since they cannot be
           | applied fairly and end up leading to more resentment and
           | tension among social groups.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | schnable wrote:
           | I wasn't proposing making it a standard for qualification.
           | More like changing job requirements to be attainable to a
           | broader swath of workers and recruiting in areas that we
           | wouldn't normally, like inner city high school grads.
        
         | stronglikedan wrote:
         | > especially people from families without a history of college
         | degrees.
         | 
         | No adult should ever be judged by the "sins of their fathers"
         | in any capacity. Family history should only be a consideration
         | when it's medical history.
        
           | romwell wrote:
           | That's one way to twist "lifting people out of generational
           | poverty", but OK.
           | 
           | Fine. Let's just give preference to people who didn't have
           | the privilege of having a college-educated adult as their
           | legal guardian or personal responsible for their upbringing.
           | 
           | Does it make it better for you?
        
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