There was abuse of the H1B program, but this new EO also has issues. The biggest one currently is the rollout. There is no guidance, no mechanism to pay the actual fee, no clarity on if it applies retroactively to existing visa holders etc.
That's entirely true. But that's not what I've been hearing since this EO was announced. I've just heard pro immigration arguments about all the good H-1B visas accomplish with none of the downsides.
I can't speak for others, but for me this seems like
1) a shakedown of corporations and / or
2) a way to ban immigration without being technically a ban
But overall I see this as another anti-immigration "policy" that's coherent with the rest of the anti-immigration policies from this administration. Hence the pro-immigration arguments.
To that point though, there were ~40k O visas issued last year. And presumably that number would have been much higher if the H-1Bs were harder to get.
And unlikely H-1B the O visas actually have requirements that the person does have above average skills.
To elaborate, I'm not pro or anti H1B per se. I'm for bringing in skilled immigrates with a reasonable qualification criteria. I agree that H1B has been abused in the past and should be reformed. I'm ALSO against just outright killing the H1B program without a replacement, which is what this EO seems to be trying to do. It's not because it's trump did it, it's because the of the chaos and confusion of this rollout (which I think is likely intentional) and because if this holds it'll cripple the H1B program which in turn will cripple the inflow of skilled immigrants.
Basically I'm against the H1B program as it was, but I'm in favor of keeping it as it was over what is being done here.
I think as usual Trump did things in the most disruptive, ridiculous way possible.
I think there are enough Tech and finance jobs to pay the 8.5 billion that this will cost to bring in 85k workers.