I think there's a difference between the sort of high-skill and/or wealthy immigrants that create billion dollar tech companies and the low-skill immigrants that americans are mostly mad about.
There seems to be very little distinction though when those high-skilled immigrants are being chased out of the country all the same, or start to avoid America because of that fear.
There is wide and abundant distinction that the left seems to willfully ignore with immense effort -- the distinction between legal and illegal immigrants. The argument was never anti-immigration, it was always anti-illegal immigration and anti-unrestrained immigration.
This nuance has been erased by an administration that has canceled programs for legal immigration, then used that retroactively-illegal status to deport people who have been here for decades.
Perhaps for you the distinction is important, but in terms of policy, there is no difference at all.
That distinction is actually not the point. The point is that legal and high-skilled immigrants want to come to America because of America's multiculturalism.
If you start kicking out all the people who are brown or muslim or otherwise different, you hurt the society and make it harder for the legal high-skilled immigrants to live here.
(Not to mention that for three decades American politicians and corporations encouraged immigrants to come here and work without status. And that Irish and Italian immigrants came here 100 years ago before there was any immigration law; if today's republicans existed in 1900-1930, they would have demonized Irish and Italians for votes too.)
Oh? Is that why nativists oppose the H1B visa without supporting alternative means of high-skill immigration?
As a brown person it's become abundantly clear that the Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon view on immigration is certainly mad about something - and it's not skill.
I don't think they're mad, per se. They just want to get votes for their party, and xenophobia works. It divides the country, and amplifies hate, but it gets votes for their party.
An H1B is a Visa with intent to immigrate. A TN1 is a non-immigration temporary worker visa. You need to do things to follow through on that intent, but it's still an option.
Strict immigration policies necessarily affect both groups even if they are meant to target low-skill immigrants. At the very least, it creates an unwelcoming environment that would discourage the high-skill immigrants from considering the move.
