A friend of mine was signing up as a translator for Gengo.com recently. It's a site where you can work as a translator to earn money. Right away during the signup process, it says this:
If you live outside the U.S., you can work through Gengo.
If you live in the U.S. and are a U.S. Citizen or Resident Alien, you can work through Gengo.
If you live in the U.S. and are NOT a U.S. Citizen or Resident Alien, you will NOT be able to work through Gengo, so please do not continue.
That just doesn't make a whit of sense.
It's not Gengo's fault: they're just following the law.
And the law made some sense before. But now, we're in a funny position where someone who is an excellent translator is allowed to work through Gengo from anywhere in the world... unless they're visiting the United States on a student or tourist visa.
Measures like these won't make any positive impact on the American economy and don't protect American jobs. It just makes it harder for people who are interested in visiting or studying America to do so sustainably, and that's to the detriment of everyone in the States. America was built by talented, entrepreneurial people who struck off from the native countries to build a life in the New World.
It's too bad that it's slightly harder to do that for someone who would want to study in the United States, and work in a global marketplace at the same time. But because Gengo is U.S.-based, you're not allowed to work for them if you're in America and not a citizen or permanent resident.
That's archaic, and unfortunate for everyone involved.