Donald Trump's presidential campaign has put out a detailed policy paper on immigration, claiming "black Americans have been particularly harmed" by the influx of immigrants. Mr. Trump's position paper says:
Raising the prevailing wage paid to H-1Bs will force companies to give these coveted entry-level jobs to the existing domestic pool of unemployed native and immigrant workers in the U.S., instead of flying in cheaper workers from overseas. This will improve the number of black, Hispanic and female workers in Silicon Valley who have been passed over in favor of the H-1B program. Mark Zuckerberg's personal Senator, Marco Rubio, has a bill to triple H-1Bs that would decimate women and minorities.
When someone like Mr. Trump, not heretofore known for his great concern for women and minorities, comes out with a plan for restricting immigration and justifies it on the grounds that it will help women and minorities, one reasonable response would be to ask, "Gee Mr. Trump, of all the possible ways for the government to intervene and help women and minorities, why is it that you just happened to focus on immigration restrictions rather than any of the other possible policy solutions?"
It's particularly strange that Mr. Trump is going after Mr. Rubio as "Mark Zuckerberg's personal Senator." Don't we want senators to be responsive to the needs of fast-growing American technology companies that are creating great wealth for their shareholders? I don't want to make the error of speculating about Mr. Trump's motives, but a cynic might suspect that it almost sounds as if Mr. Trump is somehow jealous of Mr. Zuckerberg's business success.