Corporate America’s howling against the Trump administration’s clampdown on its penchant for importing into the U.S. hundreds of thousands of cheaper IT workers is certainly news, but to only present one side of the issue is certainly not honest journalism. And yet one-sided public relations for these corporate interests is just what Univision’s morning show, Despierta América, did when reporting on a recent letter by the Business Roundtable complaining about the Trump administration’s implementation of its ‘Buy American, Hire American’ policy as it relates to H-1B visas.
In covering the complaint of big tech companies and their allies, Univision news anchor Satcha Pretto neglected to even mention that the Trump administration’s goal through tighter administration of the H-1B program is primarily to ensure that available American and legal U.S. resident IT workers do not continue to be displaced, as well as continue to have access to more opportunities and wage growth in this sector.
SATCHA PRETTO, NEWS ANCHOR, UNIVISION: The Trump administration’s immigration policies can damage the national economy. That is what dozens of CEOs of large companies are warning in a letter in which they criticize changes in the distribution of work visas and deportation proceedings. Companies such as Apple, Coca-Cola and AT&T as well as several banking consortia signed onto the warning.
Pretto and other Univision talent are understandably sensitive to the H-1B issue, as many were able to obtain their current jobs in the U.S. on H-1B visas tied to their specialized Spanish-language communications skills. However, it is a dereliction of journalistic duty not to explain to viewers that jobs such as theirs are not at all the subject of controversy, but rather the enormous increase of hundreds of thousands of H-1B visas issued for IT jobs to mostly Indian and Chinese workers over the last decade, and where there have been multiple credible cases of displacement and wage suppression affecting American workers in this sector.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that “Now is not the time to restrict access to talent.” Yet, there is so much talent here in the U.S., and both American and foreign workers would likely see salary increases as a result of tighter administration of the H-1B visas issued in the IT sector. Silicon Valley is essentially complaining because the Trump administration’s actions means the tech companies are going to have to pay their workers higher wages.
SATCHA PRETTO, NEWS ANCHOR, UNIVISION: Executive directors of some of the largest companies in the country, among them Apple, JP Morgan and Pepsi, write in an open letter to the current administration that it reconsider immigration policies because they know and have firsthand knowledge that it would affect the labor market and specifically in these large markets. For example, they highlight the damage being done by the changes that have already been implemented to the H-1B visas, those that are being considered for the spouses of those who work under this type of immigration status and what could come. They ask to please take into account the contribution made by legal immigrants and that these vacancies cannot be filled without bringing in foreign talent.
The attempt by Univison to rile up viewers by essentially tricking them to join the outrage by using the word ‘immigration’ is a petty hat trick at best. What was laughable, though, were the images shown throughout the report portraying numerous relatively low-skilled jobs that aren’t related at all to H-1B visas. Despierta América failed by only trumpeting the headline ‘Trump’s Immigration Policies Could Hurt the U.S. Economy’ instead of presenting both sides of the controversy, including the expected positive economic results that come from more jobs for American workers and legal residents, as well as wage increases.
Below are the transcripts of the above-referenced segments, as aired during the August 24, 2018 edition of Despierta América on Univision.
SATCHA PRETTO, NEWS ANCHOR, UNIVISION: The Trump administration’s immigration policies can damage the national economy. That is what dozens of CEOs of large companies are warning in a letter in which they criticize changes in the distribution of work visas and deportation proceedings. Companies such as Apple, Coca-Cola and AT&T as well as several banking consortia signed onto the warning.
SATCHA PRETTO, NEWS ANCHOR, UNIVISION: Executive directors of some of the largest companies in the country, among them Apple, JP Morgan and Pepsi, write in an open letter to the current administration that it reconsider immigration policies because they know and have first-hand knowledge that it would be affecting the labor market and specifically in these large markets. For example, they highlight the damage being done by the changes that have already been implemented to the H-1B visas, those that are being considered for the spouses of those who work under this type of immigration status and what could come. They ask to please take into account the contribution made by legal immigrants and that these vacancies cannot be filled without bringing in foreign talent.
