• LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    Honest question: why were highly skilled Korean engineers working “illegally” in USA to begin with? Why didn’t they go through the process to get a worker’s visa or whatever?

    Another honest question: why do we have a scumbag for president? Who the hell voted for him anyway?

    • fodor@lemmy.zip
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      34 minutes ago

      You have accidentally blamed the victims. It is common around the world for people to work abroad, and we almost always do what our bosses tell us. Our bosses, of course, understand the laws of the places where we’ll be working, and they tell us what papers to fill out for immigration and visa purposes. Every multinational company has several people in HR who are experts on this topic.

      So the real question to ask is, “Did their employers try to circumvent the law?” … I think probably the answer is no, but if you think the answer is yes, then you should immediately ask, “Why didn’t ICE arrest the employers, then?”

      Also, immigration violations are almost never illegal. They’re not crimes; they are civil infractions. Like parking tickets.

    • booly@sh.itjust.works
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      2 hours ago

      why were highly skilled Korean engineers working “illegally” in USA to begin with?

      Most of them say they had valid visas or work authorization.

      The U.S. has a visa waiver program where people can come into the U.S. without a visa, and have certain rights similar to visa holders. Many of the South Korean workers have taken the position that the visas they had that allowed them to work for 6 months, or the visa waivers they had entitled them to do temporary work for less than 90 days, and that they were within those time windows.

      The lawsuits being filed also allege that immigration officials acknowledged that many of the workers did have legal rights to work, but that they were deported anyway.

      So no, I don’t think it’s been shown that the workers did anything illegal. It really sounds like ICE fucked up by following a random tip a little too credulously.