A judge on Thursday temporarily lifted a visa ban on a large number of work permits, undercutting a measure that the Trump administration says protects American jobs in a pandemic-wracked economy.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White said his ruling applied to members of organizations that sued the administration — the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers, National Retail Federation, TechNet, a technology industry group, and Intrax Inc., which sponsors cultural exchanges.

White, ruling in Oakland, California, said his order didn’t extend beyond those groups. But he noted they are comprised of “hundreds of thousands of American businesses of all sizes from a cross-section of economic sectors,” including Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc.

Paul Hughes, an attorney for the associations, said the U.S. Chamber of Commerce alone has “more than 300,000 members of all shapes and sizes across the United States.”

The injunction, which lifts the ban while the case is being litigated, is at least a temporary setback for the administration’s efforts to limit legal immigration during the coronavirus outbreak.

White, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, said President Donald Trump likely acted outside the bounds of his authority.

The judge wrote, “there must be some measure of constraint on Presidential authority in the domestic sphere in order not to render the executive an entirely monarchical power in the immigration context, an area within clear legislative prerogative.”

The ban, which took effect in June and is scheduled to last until the end of this year, applies to H-1B visas, which are widely used by major American and Indian technology companies, H-2B visas for nonagricultural seasonal workers, J visas for cultural exchanges, and L visas for managers and other key employees of multinational corporations.

It was the second time in three days that White blocked a significant change in immigration. On Tuesday, he halted major fee increases for citizenship and other benefits three days before they were to take effect.

The Homeland Security and Justice departments did not immediately respond to requests for comments Thursday night.

The National Association of Manufacturers, which represents 1,400 companies, said the ruling will help with “crucial, hard-to-fill jobs to support economic recovery, growth, and innovation when we most need it.”

“Today’s decision is a temporary win for manufacturers committed to building that innovation in the United States,” said Linda Kelly, the group’s senior vice president and general counsel. “A long-term win for manufacturers requires policymakers to support meaningful reforms to our immigration laws that recognize the critical link between smart immigration policy and America’s competitive advantage.”

With Congress and the White House deadlocked on immigration, Trump has reshaped the system on his own. The Migration Policy Institute recently cataloged more than 400 executive actions during his presidency to change policy, including border enforcement, asylum eligibility, and vetting for visas.

Many of Trump’s changes to immigration are being challenged in court. It is unclear how many Joe Biden would roll back if he defeats Trump in November’s election or how quickly he would act.

Source: Apnews

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Facebook is launching a widespread effort to boost U.S. voter turnout and provide authoritative information about voting — just as it doubles down on its policy allowing politicians like President Donald Trump to post false information on the same subject.

The social media giant is launching a “Voting Information Center” on Facebook and Instagram that will include details on registering to vote, polling places and voting by mail. It will draw the information from state election officials and local election authorities.

The information hub, which will be prominently displayed on Facebook news feeds and on Instagram later in the summer — is similar to the coronavirus information center the company launched earlier this year in an attempt to elevate facts and authoritative sources of information on COVID-19.

Facebook and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, continue to face criticism for not removing or labeling posts by Trump that that spread misinformation about voting by mail and, many said, encouraged violence against protesters.

“I know many people are upset that we’ve left the President’s posts up, but our position is that we should enable as much expression as possible unless it will cause imminent risk of specific harms or dangers spelled out in clear policies,” Zuckerberg wrote earlier this month.

In a USA Today opinion piece Tuesday, Zuckerberg reaffirmed that position.

“Ultimately, I believe the best way to hold politicians accountable is through voting, and I believe we should trust voters to make judgments for themselves,” he wrote. “That’s why I think we should maintain as open a platform as possible, accompanied by ambitious efforts to boost voter participation.”

Facebook’s free speech stance may have more to do with not wanting to alienate Trump and his supporters while keeping its business options open, critics suggest.

Dipayan Ghosh, co-director of the Platform Accountability Project at Harvard Kennedy School, said Facebook “doesn’t want to tick off a whole swath of people who really believe the president and appreciate” his words.

In addition to the voting hub, Facebook will also now let people turn off political and social issue ads that display the “paid for by” designation, meaning a politician or political entity paid for it. The company announced this option in January but it is going into effect now.

Sarah Schiff, product manager who works on ads, cautioned that Facebook’s systems “aren’t perfect” and said she encourages users to report “paid for by” ads they see if they have chosen not to see them.

After becoming homeless, Connie Wade realized she’d be missing something critical to care for her daughter.

She and 12-year-old Emilyanne couldn’t camp in a car or on the streets because they need to plug in a machine that helps the girl breathe easier. Emilyanne has Down syndrome and her breathing is interrupted every six minutes without a CPAP device.

A typical open-space homeless shelter promised them a spot by an electrical outlet, but Wade felt they’d be too vulnerable.

Then they got an offer from Mary’s Place, a family homeless shelter that recently opened a facility inside a gleaming new building on Amazon’s Seattle campus. Believed to be the first homeless shelter built inside a corporate building in the U.S., the nonprofit’s Popsicle Place shelter program helps homeless children with life-threatening health conditions.

“Without Popsicle Place, these kids would die,” said Marty Hartman, executive director of Mary’s Place.

Amazon’s state-of-the-art, eight-story building allowed the unique program to triple its capacity. The $100 million commitment to the shelter is the tech giant’s single largest philanthropic contribution to its hometown, which it transformed with tens of thousands of high-paid tech jobs that some blame for exacerbating income inequality and affordable housing problems.

Critics also say Amazon’s explosive growth over the past decade helped fuel a growing homelessness crisis in Seattle. The online retailer faced backlash two years ago after getting city leaders to rescind a tax on large companies that would have funded homeless services. That year, CEO Jeff Bezos — the world’s richest man — announced that his long-awaited, private charitable fund would tackle homelessness.

The City Council is on the cusp of approving a new payroll tax that again would collect money from big businesses to address homelessness, affordable housing and other priorities, including the coronavirus pandemic.

John Schoettler, Amazon’s real estate chief who spearheaded the partnership with Mary’s Place, said the company isn’t totally opposed to taxes and called its new shelter “an initial step.” Amazon asked the nonprofit to help design the building because it has the space permanently, he said.

“Every inch of it was designed for the families they were going to serve,” Schoettler said.

The nonprofit takes up half of a glass-encased building, with workers in the company’s cloud computing unit on the other end. It opened in March just as the pandemic shuttered public life in Seattle.

Outside is now an eerily quiet, perfectly manicured tech campus that normally bustles with workers and food trucks.

Inside, families get private 175-square-foot (16-square-meter) rooms with bunk beds. They wear masks, get temperature checks and practice socially distancing in shared spaces, including the cafeteria, outdoor patio, kids playroom and laundry room. There’s a starkly “Amazonia” aesthetic throughout: exposed pipes, citrus-colored walls popping against concrete floors, even signs inscribed in the tech giant’s signature office font.

Two floors are reserved for families dealing with debilitating health issues, many of them with compromised immune systems from chronic illnesses or chemotherapy. Though bathrooms are shared, families have private sinks for medical needs such as feeding tubes.

A different program at the shelter also takes in homeless mothers with newborns, including prematurely born babies, for whom the bathtubs — a rarity in homeless shelters — are especially appreciated.

Experts with the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the National Health Care for the Homeless Council said the Popsicle Place program is a model they haven’t seen before.

The initiative is critical because medical bills have consistently been the top cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. for the past 40 years, and homeless children are much more likely to have chronic health conditions, said Bobby Watts, chief executive of the council.

Most families who come to Popsicle Place had some semblance of work and home stability before a child’s health issue contributed to their homelessness, either because parents could no longer work while they cared for their child or because the cost of care left them unable to afford housing.

Watts said it’s unknown how many families struggle with that type of homelessness because the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development only tracks the health conditions of homeless adults. He has never met Bezos but was an adviser for the Amazon boss’s private “Day 1 Families Fund,” which offers donations to groups sheltering young families.

Cindy Manginelli, who visits families in shelters across Tennessee as coordinator for the TennCare Shelter Enrollment Project, said the instability of homelessness is at odds with the needs of sick children.

Being homeless means moving often, which disrupts the continuity of care. Parents dealing with a child’s diagnosis also must worry about providing basics like food. And kids lack the comforts of home, often something as simple as a familiar bed.

“If you are told to lay down and rest — which is a big part of getting better — how can you?” Manginelli said.

Families usually come to Popsicle Place through a referral from Seattle Children’s Hospital, often when a social worker discovers a child has nowhere to go to recover.

Wade is grateful for the Amazon facility, saying it feels almost like a luxurious hotel instead of a homeless shelter. Her tentative smile turns to tears as she describes how much her daughter loves the many kid-friendly, fort-like spaces built into the walls of the shelter.

“She won’t remember being homeless,” Wade said, her voice cracking. “But I know she will remember this place.”

American Airlines is notifying about 25,000 workers that their jobs could be eliminated in October because of plunging demand for air travel, adding to the toll that the virus pandemic is taking on the airline industry.

American’s top executives said Wednesday that the number of furloughs could be lower if enough workers take buyouts or accept partially paid leave for up to two years.

The airline’s two top officials said they thought American might avoid furloughs because they believed demand for air travel would “steadily rebound” by Oct. 1 as the virus outbreak weakened.

“That unfortunately has not been the case,” CEO Doug Parker and President Robert Isom said in a memo to employees. ”And with infection rates increasing and several states reestablishing quarantine restrictions, demand for air travel is slowing again.”

Air travel plunged 95% from early March to mid-April, then grew slowly until leveling off in July as virus cases surged in the South and Southwest.

U.S. airlines accepted up to $25 billion in federal aid to help cover payroll costs in exchange for not cutting jobs until October. American received $5.8 billion in cash and loans, Delta got $5.4 billion and United Airlines received $5 billion. The aid likely only delayed massive job cuts throughout the airline industry.

Last week, United told 36,000 employees that they could lose their jobs in October. Delta has sent notices to more than 2,000 pilots.

American’s cuts would fall most heavily on flight attendants, with nearly 10,000, or 37%, getting notices of potential furloughs — the industry’s preferred term for layoffs of workers who have rehiring rights. About 4,500 ground workers, 3,200 mechanics and 2,500 pilots will get notices.

“It’s brutal,” said Dennis Tajer, a pilot and spokesman for the union of American’s pilots. “This puts the number on how serious the virus is for airlines and our economy.”

Several airline unions are lobbying for another $25 billion in federal payroll aid through March. American’s pilots want the government to buy billions of dollars worth of seats per month — creating more space between passengers — until the pandemic ends.

Separately, Delta Air Lines said Wednesday that it expects to take a charge of $2.7 billion to $3.3 billion to cover the cost of early retirements and buyouts for employees as it shrinks in response to a sharp decline in air travel.

The airline said this week that 17,000 employees have agreed to depart.

Delta said in a regulatory filing that $500 million to $600 million of the charge would go toward cash payments to pilots, flight attendants, ground workers and other departing employees in the July-September quarter. Employees who agree to leave get payments, health insurance and, in some cases, retiree health care benefits.

source: apnews

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