Thursday, June 11, 2015

"Feds set to destroy H-1B records"

"Records (work visas) that are critical to research and take up a microscopic amount of storage are set for deletion"
In a notice posted last week, the U.S. Department of Labor said that records used for labor certification, whether in paper or electronic, "are temporary records and subject to destruction" after five years, under a new policy.

There was no explanation for the change, and it is perplexing to researchers. The records under threat are called Labor Condition Applications (LCA), which identify the H-1B employer, worksite, the prevailing wage, and the wage paid to the worker.

"Throwing information away is anathema to the pursuit of knowledge and akin to willful stupidity or, worse, defacing Buddhist statues," said Lindsay Lowell, director of policy studies at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University. "It undermines our ability to evaluate what the government does and, in today's world, retaining electronic records like the LCA is next to costless," he said.

The cost of storage can't be an issue for the government's $80 billion IT budget: A full year's worth of LCA data is less than 1GB.
h/t Mickey Kaus

17 comments:

Methadras said...

They are trying to outdo Hillary's repulsion to record keeping. Fancy that.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

You know this is very likely not the first time they are doing this.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

If we destroy it the Chinese can't hack it?

bagoh20 said...

The Chicoms have a backup copy for us.

ricpic said...

The main thing is that ordinary citizens are to have no say in the deconstruction of America by way of massive unchecked immigration. This is the highest priority of our ruling class, both wings. Thomas Jefferson's Tree of Liberty needs watering. But I don't see a chance in hell of that happening anytime soon.

JAL said...

If they are indeed that small, allow interested parties to bring their own memory sticks. They could have 64 years of the records(!) Then it would be available to whoever wanted to have it.

Public records are public, right?

(Sorry I just fell out of my chair laughing.)

rcocean said...

It is amazing how blatant the power elite has become in their lust for cheap labor and new Democratic voters.

Sadly, I don't see any political will among the average person to stop it. Already the Republicans are lining up to vote for Rubio or Jeb "I'm really Hispanic" Bush. Meanwhile, a secret trade deal that no one can read is about to pass Congress without anyone saying boo.

edutcher said...

Clearly, those records could land a lot of people in Allenwood for a very long time.

This Administration is reminiscent of the scene in "The Longest Day" where they show the officers in Rommel's HQ burning all the records.

The Choom Gang is scared.

rcocean said...

Already the Republicans are lining up to vote for Rubio or Jeb "I'm really Hispanic" Bush.

No, the media is trying to start a bandwagon, but Jeb is going down in flames and a lot of people still won't forgive Rubio.

Meanwhile, a secret trade deal that no one can read is about to pass Congress without anyone saying boo.

Again, from I've been seeing the last few days, seems like the pressure on Congress is building nicely, now that the details are coming out.

This has been all over the Net the last couple of days.

AllenS said...

It won't happen again. Everyone of those bastards will have secret servers in their basements from now on.

chickelit said...

I'm beginning to think that the Federal Government is deliberately targeting its natural born citizens for destruction. Is there any precedent for the US Government deliberately screwing an indigenous population within its borders?

chickelit said...

If the IRS said it was committed to destroying the records of a certain cohort within the US borders, what would that mean, exactly?

edutcher said...

chickelit said...

Is there any precedent for the US Government deliberately screwing an indigenous population within its borders?

Define "indigenous".

chickelit said...

Define "indigenous".

indigenous

rcocean said...

"Again, from I've been seeing the last few days, seems like the pressure on Congress is building nicely, now that the details are coming out."

If you think anything is going to stop the trade bills you're living in a fantasy world. The fix is in.

edutcher said...

Not exactly what I was thinking.

There's all kinds of indigenous, as some are more indigenous than others.

Like the Confederates were more indigenous than the Comanches.

For all the good it did them.

edutcher said...

rcocean said...

Again, from I've been seeing the last few days, seems like the pressure on Congress is building nicely, now that the details are coming out.

If you think anything is going to stop the trade bills you're living in a fantasy world. The fix is in.


We'll see.

Sooner or later, people get fed up. I've been saying it's going to get worse before it gets better.

When people start marching on DC with tar and feathers, you know the worse has hit home.

edutcher said...

PS FWIW, anybody think the Red Chinese might have the H1-B records, too?