>How does preventing a legal employee from visiting home and returning to the US help anyone who happened to be born in the US
From a pure economics view: it does because it constrains the supply of labor. Sure, many (most?) people would probably stay and not not go back, but there's always going to be a few who do go back. That constrains the labor supply, which in theory will raise the price of labor for everyone still here, mostly natives.
That makes no sense at all. A employee visits his home country on vacation, now information to return causes problem for both the individual and the employer, especially if that person is in a critical role and now unable to do their job.
>That makes no sense at all. A employee visits his home country on vacation, now information to return
Well technically it was announced in advance, so they could conceivably fly back and avoid the restrictions.
>causes problem for both the individual and the employer, especially if that person is in a critical role and now unable to do their job.
I imagine that's what the exemptions are for. Also, if your goal is to reduce the amount of foreign workers, I'd imagine that "shock" of someone leaving is going to be present regardless of how it's implemented.
In the UK immigrants, I gather, produce more in tax revenues than they use. That aside from everything else they bring - friendship, culture, knowledge, labour - indicates financially we have a net benefit.
So exclusion of immigrants can reverse this, lowering fulfillment and reducing financial wealth.
Sure, it “constrains the labor supply” by making people choose their livelihood over visiting their family. I think that very obviously qualifies as cruelty.
>I think that very obviously qualifies as cruelty.
Whether or not it's cruel is orthogonal to whether it helps native workers. Summarily executing all visa holders is also cruel, but would probably also help native workers by constraining supply.
From a pure economics view: it does because it constrains the supply of labor. Sure, many (most?) people would probably stay and not not go back, but there's always going to be a few who do go back. That constrains the labor supply, which in theory will raise the price of labor for everyone still here, mostly natives.