There are many reports of international students having their statuses, i.e. permission to stay in the US, revoked for being involved in legal matters. The wording of the revocation is vague so nothing is certain but these students reported they have never done any crime except DUIs/DWIs/traffic incidents.
The status revocations are sudden and opaque. The students do not have an opportunity to appeal nor explain. They immediately become illegals once the decision is made and thus become subjects to detainment without due process. In practice they must immediately make arrangements to leave the US or they will risk future visa bans as them being in the country without status can also be considered violating immigration laws.
So, hypothetically, someone who came to the US for a bachelor and decided to go for a PhD, spending about 10 years here, can be forced to abandon everything in matters of days. A tricky situation, yet completely overshadowed by the tariff news and ignored by the masses.
When I made that comparison, I did not mean to bring politics into the conversation, but I assume it is a natural direction people can take it too.
I will just say this: the issues with the US are beyond *partisan* politics. In my opinion, it is a social problem much deeper than what is shown on TVs and discussed in election campaigns. Changing the party in power will not change the situation. Until the US acknowledged these matters, it will continue on the same path it has been.
For me, I guess it was the experience with the public transport, the cleanliness of the city, the way everything was built to interact with your phone seamlessly and automatically once you have the local apps(at the cost of privacy, I am fully aware), and the dazzling look of it all. Everything is new and shiny and feel safe. And not just the sterile kind of clean, but one that has a vibrant life under it.
Yes, the english localization is trash. But I mean, I am in China, I am happy enough they even have some english available. I speak some other Asian languages and not sure if it was obvious, but the US also have trash translation to those languages here too.
Maybe that was the biggest difference. I can read a bit of chinese so my experience was more "the way it was meant to be" I guess? I assume it can disappoint if you expect just an upscaled Western experience there. China is big enough they don't need to cater to rich foreigners. I knew the feeling well enough when I first came to the US so I am not surprised. But maybe it is a novel experience to Westerners.
It is both amazing and sad to see China is literally in the future compared to the US in terms of infrastructure and social development.
A trip to one of the major cities in China made it clear to me that they are ahead of the world right now. The amount of tech and the level of integration are unbelievable. In comparasion, the streets of SF, one of the crown jewels of the US technosphere, are just so "normal" I find it hard to believe.
It is the same feeling I had decades ago walking into a then-modern metropolis in the US for the first time. All the cool tech, the convenience, the upscale atmosphere, the extravagance of it all were striking. I have not felt that again for a while and I just think it can't happen again with what I am already used to now. Incredible that China managed to evoke that sense of awe in me again.
Sound scary but when looking at the facts, it is probably reasonable.
Both the university, the court, and the lawyer seem to not raising any fuss yet, signaling that whatever this is, it likely all legal and severe enough to warrant absolute silence.
The employer was likely contacted far in advance for detail not available to the public, and very likely they complied and realized there are serious issues that can tarnish the university's reputation, so they erased his name from their payroll. This indicated court order and sufficient evidences for multiple parties to be concerned.
So... best guess? National security matter. Like it or not, espionage is a thing and under this administration, all foreigner, naturalized or not, are under extra scrutiny. And the US is not above applying stereotypes.
To those flagging all these articles because of "not relevant" or "repetitive", please consider how these are affecting thousands or ten of thousands of real humans in the US, most of them are in tech. They are absolutely relevant to many people. Maybe you believe these actions are far removed from you and thus irrelevant, but have some empathy to those affected and don't try to close your eyes at least?
Also, these are as "repetitive" as OAI releasing GPT x.x. Escalation of the same event, but everytime there is something new and worthy of discussion being pushed.
So if you don't like these news, ignore them. But don't use "HN rules" as the excuse.
Honestly, what would these protests do? Serious question.
Let say you manage to achieve the unthinkable and bring a huge amount of people on the street, heck let say you are so successful that you also get a full on national strike going, what then?
Do you think it would affect those in charge right now? He would not care. He is already ruining the US economy and alliances. Why would he care if some people he does not answer to get on the street and complain? In fact, it may even give him the excuse to declare an emergency and enact even worse acts.
And you know half the country support him. He has the army on his side. The court is on his side. And worst of all, the law is beneath him, literally. What would these protests do?
I swear, serious question. Help me understand. What do you hope to achieve?
By the laws, an H1B is not cheap. No big corps would pay them much lower than what they are already paying citizens at the same position. Then add on lawyers and sponsorship fees and having an H1B is much more costly than hiring citizens.
The fact that H1B is still being favorable despite higher cost speaks volume about how it really is. In many ways, H1B is one of the reasons the US is so competitive. It takes in talents (like it or not, many H1B are just as good or more skilled than a native), force them to work much harder than a regular resident would ever want to, make them pay taxes on incomes that are higher than natives, then discard them after a few years since not everyone can have residency or can wait that long.
A H1B will always avoid conflict, keep their head down, and straight up afraid of even being anywhere near a crime much less committing it. They are an ideal underclass that can be exploited easily.
And for that reason, in capitalist America, H1B will not go away. They will try to fix some abuses, raise the barrier, make things slightly more difficult, etc. But the F1 to H1B gravy train will continue. An obvious way is to favor US degree holders to make the expensive universities here more attractive, limit abuses, while still cater to the anti-immigrant crowd.
I bet if there is a H1B reform, this will very likely be one of the changes.
> liberal democracies would still want to contain the power of the PRC (and the cult of Xi Jinping)
I am not Chinese but I still find this comment hilariously offensive and tone-deaf. I can say almost without a doubt that the US has a "tremendous" issue with cult-of-personality right now. But I don't see Chinese or other countries attacking or trying to "contain" this.
The US is still treated as a nation, unified in its people and leaders, by even its adversaries. But when Americans deal with other countries, there is a tendency to say things to the effect of: "the people are fine, it is the X that must be suppressed", ignoring that this X is inherently or directly connected to people of this nation.
I recently learned of the three poisons in Buddhism: ignorance, greed, and hatred. Buddhists consider these as the roots of all evils and something that plague all minds, from the lowliest animals to the noblest sages and even gods.
It is easy to see these poisons in the events leading to the rise of Hitler. The ignorance of racial characteristics, the greed of land and power, the hatred of foreigners, they are all so obvious now.
What is more disturbing is how the same poisons seem to be widely popular nowadays and many, including some of the most powerful people in the world, appear to actively embrace them.
Edit: This seems a more controversial opinion than I expected...
I understand this is HN and many here love SF so can you explain to me how or why a company would want to have a physical location in downtown SF? It is expensive, higher tax, more regulations, all of which are often hated by a pure capitalist corporation. With the remote work push, the argument about talent pool is moot as well.
IMO, moving out of SF is the correct choice. In fact, moving out of CA is also a correct choice, if profit is all a company is looking for.
You are twisting the words. I said "trials", you turned it into "evidence" and assumed things I never said.
Evidence is still needed. Safety and efficacy are still required. But how and why those happened doesn't have to be as strict. Where the drug came from, how it was made, etc.
The FDA already did it once with the COVID vaccine. It skipped or rushed almost the entire process and it turned out mostly fine. But anything else it asks for everything, down to the minutiae like how many seconds did the cells get thawed out or excessive requirements like proving production quality can remain stable for months while a drug batch is produced in only 2-3 weeks.
The FDA basically say drugs has to be produced in their way and their way only. Any deviation or attempt to try something new carries too much risk of rejection. Following their way usually give good results. But not everything can be forced into that narrow path, especially for something like biologics that involve living cells. Even something as tried and true like a mAb still routinely get rejected internally because the cells producing it simply can't keep making them without some additives that are either too expensive or not yet approved for the current process. Biology is messy and it isn't easy getting things to work even when they are supposed to work, so making something "new" to work in a specific way is too risky. That is my point.
The status revocations are sudden and opaque. The students do not have an opportunity to appeal nor explain. They immediately become illegals once the decision is made and thus become subjects to detainment without due process. In practice they must immediately make arrangements to leave the US or they will risk future visa bans as them being in the country without status can also be considered violating immigration laws.
So, hypothetically, someone who came to the US for a bachelor and decided to go for a PhD, spending about 10 years here, can be forced to abandon everything in matters of days. A tricky situation, yet completely overshadowed by the tariff news and ignored by the masses.