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Biden Lets Trump Era H-1B Visa Bans Expire, Indian Techies To Benefit

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Joe Biden did not issue a fresh proclamation for the ban on H-1B visas to continue after March 31.
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Washington:
US President Joe Biden on Thursday let the ban on foreign workers visa, in particular H-1B, lapse as the notification issued by his predecessor Donald Trump expired, a move which is likely to benefit thousands of Indian IT professionals.
Amid a national lockdown and the COVID-19 crisis, Trump in June last year issued a proclamation that suspended entry to the US of applicants for several temporary or "non-immigrant" visa categories, including H-1B, arguing that these visas presented a risk to the US labour market during the economic recovery.
On December 31, Trump extended the order to March 31, 2021, noting that an extension was warranted as the pandemic continued to disrupt American's lives, and high levels of unemployment and job loss were still presenting serious economic challenges to workers across the US.
Biden did not issue a fresh proclamation for the ban on H-1B visas to continue after March 31.
He had promised to lift the suspension on H-1B visas, saying Trump's immigration policies were cruel.
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.
The expiry of the Trump's proclamation would now result in the issuing of H-1B visas by American diplomatic missions overseas that would result in US companies bringing in talented technology professionals inside the country.
No new proclamation was issued by Biden till Wednesday mid-night, resulting in the automatic end to the ban on issuing of fresh H-1B visas.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the White House will not renew a ban on H-1B and other work-based visas imposed last year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that is set to expire on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a Republican Senator from Missouri on Wednesday urged Biden to issue a fresh proclamation to continue with the H-1B visa ban.
"I write today to urge you to extend the freeze on temporary foreign worker entries into the United States that, without intervention, will expire today," Senator Josh Hawley wrote in a letter to Biden.
"The presidential proclamation suspending entry of certain temporary workers into the US has protected Americans suffering from the pandemic-induced economic crisis. With millions of struggling Americans out of work - and millions more desperate to make ends meet - now is not the time to open the floodgates to thousands of foreign workers competing with American workers for scarce jobs and resources," he wrote.
In his letter, Hawley wrote that the unemployment rate remains at 6.2 per cent - with nearly 10 million Americans out of work and looking for a job. The pandemic has been especially devastating for low-income and working class Americans, many of whom have borne the brunt of the crisis - and stand to lose the most from misguided policy decisions, he said.
In periods of high unemployment, it makes no sense to allow a struggling labour market to be flooded with a wave of foreign competition, he said.
"What makes even less sense is to willingly introduce further competition for the US workers at the same time that a disastrous illegal immigration crisis grows on our southern border. As at the border, failure to take meaningful action is, in itself, a policy decision with detrimental impacts for American workers.
"I urge you to extend the temporary foreign worker entry suspension until the national unemployment rate has meaningfully declined, and until your administration has conducted a thorough review of non-immigrant visa programmes to ensure that American workers are fully and effectively protected from harm," Hawley added.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/indians-abroad/h-b-visa-joe-biden-lets-donald-trump-era-h-1b-visa-bans-expire-indian-techies-to-benefit-2403542">https://www.ndtv.com/indians-abroad/h-b-visa-joe-biden-lets-donald-trump-era-h-1b-visa-bans-expire-indian-techies-to-benefit-2403542</a>

news world Biden Lets Trump Era H-1B Visa Bans Expire, Indian Techies To Benefit

Joe Biden did not issue a fresh proclamation for the ban on H-1B visas to continue after March 31. Washington: US President Joe Biden o...

Two Girls, 3 And 5, Dropped Over 14-Foot Wall At US-Mexico Border

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Two Girls, 3 And 5, Dropped Over 14-Foot Wall At US-Mexico Border" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2019-09/qodvdf8o_us-mexico-border-wall_625x300_04_September_19.jpg" title="Two Girls, 3 And 5, Dropped Over 14-Foot Wall At US-Mexico Border" /></div>
US agents are working with Mexican authorities to identify those responsible.
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Washington, United States:
Two small Ecuadoran girls, three and five years old, were hoisted over and dropped from the top of a 14-foot wall marking the US-Mexican border in the middle of the night before being picked up by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers, the agency said Wednesday. 
"On Tuesday evening, a Santa Teresa agent utilizing camera technology observed a smuggler dropping two young children from the top of the approximately 14-foot-high (four-meter-high) border barrier," CBP said in a statement.
The children were taken to a CBP station in Santa Teresa, New Mexico to be evaluated by medical personnel, and then were transported to a local hospital as a precaution. CBP said the girls remain in the agency's custody. 
"I'm appalled by the way these smugglers viciously dropped innocent children from a 14-foot border barrier last night," chief patrol agent Gloria Chavez said in a statement. 
Chavez said US agents are working with Mexican authorities  to identify those responsible.
"If not for the vigilance of our agents using mobile technology, these two tender-aged siblings would have been exposed to the harsh elements of desert environment for hours," Chavez said. 
The United States is facing an increase of migrant arrivals at the country's southern border, mostly Central Americans who say they are fleeing poverty and violence in their own countries. 
Recently, there has been an average of 500 unaccompanied children crossing each day. 
President Joe Biden's administration is facing growing pressure to confront the situation and criticisms about how the unaccompanied minors have been cared for while under US government custody. 
According to official statistics, the Department of Health and Human Services had 12,918 migrant children in their care as of Tuesday, while CBP was responsible for the care of another 5,285.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/two-girls-3-and-5-dropped-over-14-foot-wall-at-us-mexico-border-2403525">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/two-girls-3-and-5-dropped-over-14-foot-wall-at-us-mexico-border-2403525</a>

news world Two Girls, 3 And 5, Dropped Over 14-Foot Wall At US-Mexico Border

US agents are working with Mexican authorities to identify those responsible. Washington, United States: Two small Ecuadoran girls, thr...

Twin YouTube Pranksters Plead Guilty To Staging Fake Bank Robberies

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Alan and Alex Stokes accepted a bargain offered by judge reducing felony count to a misdemeanor.
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Los Angeles:
YouTube stars Alan and Alex Stokes, twins known for provocative video gags, have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from two fake bank robberies they staged in California, one of which led to police drawing their guns on the brothers' unsuspecting Uber driver.
The 23-year-old brothers were originally each charged with one felony count of false imprisonment by violence, menace or fraud, and two misdemeanor counts of falsely reporting an emergency in connection with the Oct. 15, 2019, pranks in the city of Irvine.
Those charges carried a maximum penalty of five years in prison, according to the Orange County district attorney's office.
But the brothers accepted a bargain offered by the judge reducing the felony count to a misdemeanor and imposing a more lenient sentence - probation and 160 hours of community service - in return for a guilty plea.
The judge also ordered the brothers, who boast nearly 7 million subscribers on YouTube, to stop making videos mimicking criminal behavior, the district attorney's office said.
The plea was entered in court Tuesday over the objection of prosecutors who felt the tougher charges were warranted given the potential danger to the community, Kimberly Edds, the district attorney's spokeswoman, said on Wednesday. A similar stunt in Tennessee last February ended with the prankster fatally shot by his "victim," she said.
In the Stokes case, the brothers dressed in black clothing and ski masks and carried duffle bags full of cash as they pretended to flee from a bank robbery, while their videographer recorded the stunt.
The brothers hailed an Uber, whose operator refused to drive them, all of which an onlooker took for a carjacking in progress. Police arrived and ordered the Uber driver out of his vehicle at gunpoint before realizing it was a gag.
The officers let the Stokes brothers go with a warning, but they repeated the stunt four hours later at a university campus and were arrested, prosecutors said.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/twin-youtube-pranksters-plead-guilty-to-staging-fake-bank-robberies-2403511">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/twin-youtube-pranksters-plead-guilty-to-staging-fake-bank-robberies-2403511</a>

news world Twin YouTube Pranksters Plead Guilty To Staging Fake Bank Robberies

Alan and Alex Stokes accepted a bargain offered by judge reducing felony count to a misdemeanor. Los Angeles: YouTube stars Alan and Al...

Yes, Israel "Occupies" West Bank, US Says

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Yes, Israel 'Occupies' West Bank, US Says" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/98ni7clo_us-flag_625x300_02_September_18.jpg" title="Yes, Israel 'Occupies' West Bank, US Says" /></div>
Donald Trump also recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
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Washington, United States:
US President Joe Biden's administration said Wednesday that Israel's control of the West Bank is indeed "occupation," clarifying its stance after the release of a report that seemed to downplay the term, adopting language used by Donald Trump's government.
The State Department's annual report on human rights "does use the term 'occupation' in the context of the current status of the West Bank," State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.
"This has been the longstanding position of previous administrations of both parties over the course of many decades," he said.
But under the staunchly pro-Israel Trump, the annual human rights report renamed the section on "Israel and the Occupied Territories" as "Israel, West Bank and Gaza."
The first of the reports issued under Biden, which was released Tuesday, kept the same formulation but stated that the language was not meant to convey any position.
The top State Department official on human rights, Lisa Peterson, said that the report generally uses geographical names and that "Israel, West Bank and Gaza" was easier and clearer for readers.
Trump's secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, broke past precedent by visiting a Jewish settlement in the West Bank and said he disagreed with the broad international consensus that such construction is illegal, with Trump signalling that Israel should be free to annex Palestinian land.
Trump also recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital as well as Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights from Syria.
Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005 but maintains control over the crowded, Hamas-ruled territory's airspace and borders.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has indicated the United States will not reverse Trump's decisions on Jerusalem but will also do more to work toward an independent Palestinian state.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/yes-israel-occupies-west-bank-us-says-2403497">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/yes-israel-occupies-west-bank-us-says-2403497</a>

news world Yes, Israel "Occupies" West Bank, US Says

Donald Trump also recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Washington, United States: US President Joe Biden's administration ...

US Plant Ruins 15 Million Johnson & Johnson Coronavirus Vaccine Doses: Report

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="US Plant Ruins 15 Million Johnson & Johnson Coronavirus Vaccine Doses: Report" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-02/243r5ng_johnson-johnson-coronavirus-vaccine-generic650_625x300_10_February_21.jpg" title="US Plant Ruins 15 Million Johnson & Johnson Coronavirus Vaccine Doses: Report" /></div>
The J&J vaccine has won praise for its single dosage (Representational)
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Washington, United States:
About 15 million doses of the single-shot coronavirus vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson were ruined in a factory error in the United States, The New York Times reported -- a blow to the company's efforts to quickly boost production.
When contacted by AFP, the pharmaceutical giant said it had identified a batch of doses at a plant in Baltimore run by Emergent BioSolutions "that did not meet quality standards" but did not confirm the specific number affected.
The company also said the batch "was never advanced to the filling and finishing stages of our manufacturing process."
"Quality and safety continue to be our top priority," it said.
The Times report however signaled that issues with quality control could affect future output, with the Food and Drug Administration expected to investigate.
The FDA told AFP it was "aware of the situation" but declined to comment further.
Johnson & Johnson said it was sending more experts to the site to "supervise, direct and support all manufacturing of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine," which would allow it to deliver an additional 24 million shots "through April."
The Emergent BioSolutions plant had not yet been authorized by US regulators to manufacture a "drug substance" for the J&J vaccine, the company said, but US media reported that it was expected to produce tens of millions of doses in the near future.
The J&J vaccine has won praise for its single dosage and because it does not need to be frozen -- unlike the shots from Moderna and Pfizer -- making distribution much simpler.
"We continue to expect to deliver our Covid-19 vaccine at a rate of more than one billion doses by the end of 2021," J&J said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-plant-ruins-15-million-johnson-johnson-coronavirus-vaccine-doses-report-2403495">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-plant-ruins-15-million-johnson-johnson-coronavirus-vaccine-doses-report-2403495</a>

news world US Plant Ruins 15 Million Johnson & Johnson Coronavirus Vaccine Doses: Report

The J&J vaccine has won praise for its single dosage (Representational) Washington, United States: About 15 million doses of the si...

Cartel Smugglers Toss Babies Into River, Over Border Wall & Violently Gang Rape Kids

Horrifying reports are coming out of America’s southern border with each passing day under the Biden administration.
Just this week, footage of young children being tossed over the border wall and left to fend for themselves was leaked along with a border agent’s testimonial of a young girl’s violent rape at the hands of smugglers.
Watch below as a pair of young kids are dropped from the top of the border wall by coyotes who head back into Mexico after letting the minors fall to the U.S. side.
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In the following interview, a Border Patrol officer named Oscar Escamilla detailed a horrific encounter he had with a young girl at a migrant facility.
“About a month-and-a-half ago I was back here talking to one of the little girls, you know, and I told the Congressional delegation this, the same thing, right?” Escamilla explained.
“We were gonna send her to the hospital and as I got close to her I noticed that she couldn’t speak and I asked the medical staff what happened. And she, the reason she was going to the hospital because she had gotten gang raped. And the reason that she couldn’t speak was because she had lost her voice in the process while she was getting raped. Those things hit hard.”
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WARNING: GRAPHIC SUBJECT MATTER 
Harrowing stories of sexual abuse are among some of what Oscar Escamilla, a U.S. Border Patrol official, says ‘hit hard’ as he details what some of the unaccompanied migrant children at the U.S.-Mexico border have told him <a href="https://t.co/aLb7eV7Crz">https://t.co/aLb7eV7Crz</a> <a href="https://t.co/QZg0Eo27Zw">pic.twitter.com/QZg0Eo27Zw</a>
— Reuters (@Reuters) <a href="https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1377064350087839750?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 31, 2021</a></blockquote>
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<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://thepostmillennial.com/border-patrol-rescues-6-month-old-baby-after-she-was-tossed-into-the-rio-grande-by-human-traffickers" target="_blank">Another disturbing story</a> coming from the border this week describes the specialized group South Texas Special Operations Texas Rangers Division rescuing a six-month-old baby from the Rio Grande.
<div class="Z5UehgdL"><a href="https://www.infowarsstore.com/specials-clearance/mega-blowout-sale?ims=kdako&utm_campaign=Infowars+Mega+Blowout+3-18-2021&utm_source=Infowars+Hero&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=HeroMegaBlowout" target="_blank"><img src="https://api.directus.libertycdn.com/uploads/_/originals/MegaBlowOutsale-LastDay-hero-385.jpg" /></a></div>
After cartel smugglers assaulted the child’s mother and broke her leg, they tossed her infant child into the water while guiding 67 adults and 150 children across via rafts.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-58672" sizes="(max-width: 723px) 100vw, 723px" src="https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/03/Screen-Shot-2021-03-31-at-5.43.33-PM.png" srcset="https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/03/Screen-Shot-2021-03-31-at-5.43.33-PM-259x300.png 259w, https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/03/Screen-Shot-2021-03-31-at-5.43.33-PM.png 723w" /></figure>
Meanwhile, mainstream media and Democrat politicians hide the truth about the dangerous situation started by Joe Biden down south.
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source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/cartel-smugglers-toss-babies-into-river-over-border-wall-violently-gang-rape-kids">https://www.infowars.com/posts/cartel-smugglers-toss-babies-into-river-over-border-wall-violently-gang-rape-kids</a>

news Cartel Smugglers Toss Babies Into River, Over Border Wall & Violently Gang Rape Kids

Horrifying reports are coming out of America’s southern border with each passing day under the Biden administration. Just this week, footag...