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AS IT IS
US Visa Problems for Indian Doctors near Breaking Point
May 13, 2019
Dr. Tarkeshwar Tiwary says the current green card backlog for Indian nationals frustrates him as a father of two children, who have spent most of their lives in the U.S.
Tarkeshwar Tiwary works at a hospital in central Pennsylvania. He is a doctor and specializes in treating diseases involving the lungs.
Tiwary is among the nearly 50,000 licensed Indian doctors working in the United States. He is also one of more than 300,000 Indian immigrants waiting for legal permanent residency under an employment-based visa.
The 45-year-old doctor says he feels invested in the rural Pennsylvania community where he works. However, the wait for a green card — a pathway to becoming a U.S. citizen — is taking too long.
Tiwary told VOA, "What was promised to me was that if I intend to immigrate, I will be immigrating in a reasonable period of time. If I had gone to any other country, like Canada or Australia, I would have been a citizen much, much earlier."
One common path to permanent residency is through an H-1B visa. That visa is open to those with a "specialty occupation."
About 75 percent of all H-1B visa holders are Indian nationals. Most of them work in computer-related jobs. But a 7 percent per-country, per-year limit on employment-based green cards has increased wait times across all occupations.
David Bier is an immigration policy expert with the CATO Institute research center. He notes that wait times have been increasing since 2003-2004. He added that for a time, it seemed liked the U.S. government’s Citizenship and Immigration Services stopped processing visa requests. Since then, he said, lots of people have given up.
Rural communities hit hardest
If Tiwary and other Indian doctors decide to leave the United States, the move would affect rural communities across Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland. Many people living there travel more than an hour to receive specialized care.
Joanne Cochran is president and chief executive officer at Keystone Health, a health care provider in the city of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. She notes that nearly one in five patients in the Chambersburg area lives in poverty. About 65 percent of pediatric patients receive medical assistance. Keystone counts heavily on foreign-born family doctors, many of them from India on H-1B and J-1 exchange visitor visas.
Cochran told VOA, "We have Indian doctors in family medicine, psychiatry… pediatrics, internal medicine, infectious disease, urgent care...It would be a huge hardship [if they were to leave]."
Mohamed Abdus Samad is also waiting for a permanent residency card. He is a medical doctor and specializes in kidney care and diseases of the kidneys.
Samad works at Chambersburg Hospital. Some of his patients travel 80 to 100 kilometers to see him. As the need for kidney specialists increases and his ties with patients grow stronger, the decision to wait for a green card becomes harder.
"They (the patients) are grateful for the care that they get, but it also puts pressure on me,” said the 32-year-old doctor. “If I want to make any move, I have to think about what will happen to those patients."
Christine Newman is one of Samad’s patients. She worries it could take months to get an appointment at another hospital if Samad and other doctors with similar visa issues were to leave.
"They're doing what they're supposed to," Newman said. "[The U.S. government] should cut through that red tape and get them in."
Indian doctors also face other issues.
The Department of Homeland Security wants to change the rules of an employment program created during the presidency of Barack Obama. The program enables wives or husbands of H-1B visa workers to gain employment. If the rules change, it would affect about 90,000 people, mostly highly educated Indian women.
I’m Jonathan Evans.
Ramon Taylor reported this story for VOA News. Jonathan Evans adapted his report for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
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Words in this Story
licensed – adj. having official permission to have or do something;
pediatric – adj. of or relating to the medical care or illnesses of children
residency – n. legal permission to live in a place
red tape – n. a series of actions or complicated tasks that seem unnecessary but that a government or organization requires you to do in order to get or do something
AS IT IS
US Officials, Candidates Being Trained to Guard against Cyber Threats
May 13, 2019
In 2016, U.S. candidates for public office were thinking mainly about how to get elected. But at the same time, Russian agents were attacking computers and computer networks in the United States. Those cyberattacks changed American politics. The effects and costs of the Russian operation have become a major issue during Donald Trump’s presidency.
And it all started when someone opened an inviting email and entered a password.
Have U.S. presidential candidates and their campaigns learned from the 2016 cyberattacks? That is a big question with less than nine months before the first event in the 2020 campaign season. Preventing future attacks will not be easy. And it will cost a lot.
Unmatched defenses
Robby Mook managed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presidential election campaign in 2016. He compares political campaigns to U.S. government agencies, like the Department of Defense.
“If you are the Pentagon or the NSA, you have the most skilled adversaries in the world trying to get in, but you also have some of the most skilled people working defense. Campaigns are facing similar adversaries, and they don’t have similar resources…," he said.
Mook added that U.S. campaigns generally do not employ experts to prevent cyberattacks.
Traditionally, cybersecurity has not been important for candidates, especially in the early weeks of a campaign. They need to raise money and get people to work for them during the campaign. Presidential candidates also need to pay rent for office space, talk to supporters and travel repeatedly to early voting states.
Funding campaign security
Then there is the question of how to spend money. Security systems for computer networks may cost more than a good television advertisement.
Robby Mook told The Associated Press: “You shouldn’t have to choose between getting your message out to voters and keeping the Chinese from reading your emails.”
Mook is now with the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School in Massachusetts. He has been helping develop a plan for a nonprofit group to provide cybersecurity support and additional help directly to campaigns.
Question of trust
Other help is available from the cyber agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, or DHS. However, the campaigns of some Democratic Party candidates may feel uneasy working with an administration they are trying to defeat.
Matt Masterson is a cybersecurity adviser with Homeland Security. He says the first step will be to establish trust between the agency and different campaigns. Then, DHS can share intelligence about possible threats and the campaigns can give DHS information. The department also will test a campaign’s or party’s computer networks for weaknesses.
Masterson said the biggest issue is that a political campaign is a temporary operation, which has many people coming and going. It is hard to control the use of campaign computers.
John Delaney, a former congressman, was the first Democrat to announce he is a candidate for president. He sees cybersecurity as a fixed cost.
Simple technology
“It’s not supercomputers cracking through your firewalls,” he said. “It’s really tempting emails that people respond to and give away information.”
The 2016 cyberattacks were low-tech, meaning they involved only simple technology. Russian agents sent hundreds of emails to the personal and work emails of Clinton campaign workers and volunteers. The emails were made to look like they were from the campaign officials and asked the reader to activate a link and enter a password. Such emails also went to people working for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic National Committee.
After an employee gave up password information, the Russians were able to connect to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s networks. They used that to gain entry to the Democratic National Committee.
Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, fell for the same trick on his personal email account. He made the mistake of clicking on a link and entering his password. Then, Russians stole thousands of Podesta's private messages about what was happening inside the Clinton campaign.
Training and preparation
But the Clinton campaign had not ignored cybersecurity. Mook told the AP that a lot of money was spent to train campaign workers on cyber threats. They had even sent emails to test staffers’ ability to detect phishing attempts.
It was easy for the Russians to attack U.S. computer networks in 2016, so the 2020 presidential election campaigns now need to take extra care. Hillary Clinton has been talking about this with Democratic presidential candidates.
“Unless we know how to protect our election from what happened before and what could happen again...you could lose,” Clinton said. “I don’t mean it to scare everybody. But I do want every candidate to understand this remains a threat.”
California Senator Kamala Harris’ campaign said it was teaching campaign workers the basic methods that prevent cyberattacks.
“All staff is being trained on threats and ways to avoid being a target,” a campaign spokesperson said.
Others seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination did not want to talk about the subject. Trump’s re-election campaign would not talk to the AP either.
Caution at the White House
The president has often downplayed Russia’s interference in 2016. He says the attacks were less serious than first thought. Former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Trump’s team told her not to bring up election security during her meetings with him.
Administration officials claim election security is an important issue for them. Chris Krebs is head of DHS’ cyber efforts. He told lawmakers at a House committee hearing that his office is working hard to protect the election of 2020.
“I’d ask each of you: Do you know if your campaign is working with us?”
I’m Jill Robbins.
Colleen Long and Christina A. Cassidy reported on this story for the Associated Press. Jill Robbins adapted it for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
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Words in This Story
password - n. a secret series of numbers or letters that gives users rights to use a computer or computer system
manage – v. to supervise or organize
NSA - n. National Security Agency
adversary - n. an enemy or opponent
rent – n. a payment for temporary use of something
firewall – n. a barrier or security system that controls incoming and outgoing messages
phishing - n. the custom of sending emails that look like they are from well-known companies in order to influence individuals to provide personal information
What is your country doing to prevent cyberattacks? Write to us in the Comments Section.
AS IT IS
Amazon Pays Employees to Start Businesses
May 13, 2019
FILE - Packages ride on a conveyor system at an Amazon fulfillment center in Baltimore, Maryland, Aug. 3, 2017.
The U.S.-based business Amazon is often called a technology company. But many people know the company best for all the products it sells on the internet.
Amazon’s website offers everything from jewelry and electronics to health and beauty care products.
Now, Amazon is looking for ways to ship its products faster to buyers across the United States. It is trying to speed up product delivery times. To do that, the company announced a plan Monday: to pay its employees to give up their job and help them start a business delivering Amazon packages.
The offer comes as the company tries to decrease its shipping times for Amazon Prime members. The goal is to deliver goods to Prime members in one day.
Amazon says it will pay up to $10,000 in costs for employees who are accepted into the new delivery program.
Once accepted, Amazon says it will pay the former employees what amounts to three months of their former wages.
The offer is open to most part-time and full-time Amazon employees, including those working in warehouses and other places where products are stored.
The company, based in Seattle, Washington, did not say how many employees it expects to take them up on the offer.
The new announcement is part of a program Amazon started a year ago. That program lets anyone offer to launch an independent Amazon delivery business.
John Felton is Amazon’s vice president of global delivery services. He said that more than 200 Amazon delivery businesses have been created since the company launched the program in June of 2018.
Milton Collier heads one of the delivery services. He started the business in Atlanta, Georgia about eight months ago. Since then, it has grown to include 50 vehicles and about 120 employees.
Collier says his business is already preparing for the one-day shipping goal by looking for more workers.
“We’re ready,” said Collier.
I'm John Russell.
Joseph Pisano reported on this story for the Associated Press. John Russell adapted his report for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
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Words in This Story
delivery -n. the act of taking something to a person or place
global – adj. of or related to the whole world; worldwide
We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.