EVEN THE NEW YORK TIMES IS NOTICING H1-B VISA ABUSE:

The H-1B is a bad deal all around. American workers get laid off, while the immigrants who take their jobs are bound to their employers in unique and unhealthy ways: if they quit, under the terms of the visa they have to return to their home countries. In practice, this means they put up with lower wages and worse treatment—as we have written, indenturement for the 21st Century. The country is thereby deprived of the dynamism and creativity of the newcomers that usually is one of the major benefits of immigration. And eventually, the H-1B-ification of jobs usually paves the way for outsourcing the positions entirely, harming the local community. The only party that benefits is the employer. . . .

These abuses of the H-1B—or really, the negative consequences of its use exactly as intended—have caught the eyes of lawmakers including not just not just immigration hawks like Jeff Sessions (R-Al.), but also Democrats Dick Durbin of Illinois and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.

So far, the H-1B has survived, despite a growing cascade of bad press, because to the Democrats it’s an immigration issue (and thus sacrosanct), and to Republicans, it’s a big-business issue (ditto.) If and when the Republicans start to see it primarily as an abuse of the immigration system, and Democrats start to see it as an abuse of workers by big business—then reform or repeal will follow.

The GOP should be making a stink about this, and pledging an end to the “carried interest’ loophole. But it won’t.