The Inconvenient Truth about H-1B Visas
American Conservative,
by
Hayden Ludwig
Original Article
Posted By: ConservativeYankee,
3/31/2025 3:47:43 PM
President Donald Trump's mandate from the voters undoubtedly gives him wide latitude to close the border to illegal aliens, which he has done. Border crossings are down 90 percent and more illegal aliens were arrested in Trump’s first 50 days than across Joe Biden's final year in office.
Now, many in the America First movement are asking, “What about reducing legal immigration?”
Big Tech moguls Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy accidentally raised awareness of this controversial topic in December by defending—while also calling for reforms to—the H-1B visa program, which allows companies to hire specialist workers from abroad for up to 6 years. “The reason I’m in America along with
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 3/31/2025 4:18:33 PM (No. 1924382)
Hire an H-1B visa person from some hellhole place and put an American out of a job. That's my motto acquired from witnessing it firsthand as a 30+ year employee of a Fortune 50 company. It is also a "false economy" pursued by the executive staff of large corporations that if a few low cost workers are "good" then a whole lot of low cost workers would be "great!" In reality the problem lies in the horrible decision decades ago whereby the CEO and Board gave Human Resources (HR) a "seat at the table" for financial and executive decisions. The fastest way to improve the "bottom line" of any company is through cutting labor costs, by hook or by crook. Rarely is any executive held accountable by the Board or Shareholders over the CEO's critically flawed decision to conduct massive layoffs, bring in thousands of H-1B visa employees, or to move entire operations to "low cost countries" (now called "emerging economies").
The H-1B visa program is much closer to human trafficking and the slave trade than it is to free market capitalism. It needs to be ended NOW.
50 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
DVC 3/31/2025 4:21:19 PM (No. 1924383)
Personal experience with Indian engineers. I have known and worked with three pretty closely. Two were in the lat 1970s, and both had PhDs in Engineering, which gives one the idea that they should be superstars. In my opinion, they knew the book learning cold, but had zero common sense about mechanical things. I have joked that if you locked either of them in room with a bicycle disassembled into the smallest component parts and a massive tool kit, feeding them through a slot in the door until they could ride out on a fully functioning bicycle, they would die in that room.
The third I worked with was a very sharp software and computer tech engineer working for Cray Research, at that time the premier supercomputer company in the world. He was very sharp, very capable, top notch and very personable.
So, IME, two out of three are "book smart" types with little common sense for engineering problems. Another point is that if they had calculated that the required size of bolt to hold up a coat hook was a 3/4" diameter high strength bolt (though an error, which we all make) they would not find that to be a bothersome outcome and would blythely spec out that bolt for that job. Whereas a real world engineer would see instantly...."Hell, that's BS, better go back and find my screwup."
IMO, and my wife's experience as a designer for a large, international engineering firm, most engineering companies use H1Bs to get cheap engineers to hold down wages for American engineers.
35 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
sunshinehorses 3/31/2025 4:38:24 PM (No. 1924401)
I was in IT during the 1990's and early 2000's when IT was beginning to be outsourced overseas. Before it went overseas, companies would hire H1b's at considerably less than an American programmer would be paid. In order to get that H1b visa, HR would take the resume of the person they wanted to hire and fill out the job requirements so no American programmer would fit the bill. Yes they are supposed to be paid what the going rate for an American was, but they made it "entry level" so they could pay lots less - plus in some cases I believe they got tax breaks.
Yes I worked a contract with one company that was owned by someone orginally from India that brought programmers over, held their green cards and visas so they couldn't "escape" and paid them slave wages. Luckily, I was there only a few months and answered to the company where the contract was and not the Indian contracting firm.
All of this irritated me because giving a US programmer additional training would have given these companies a better programmer and a loyal employee and saved a ton of money in the long run. Also, the backdoors being programmed into the stuff from overseas was (and still may be) horrible and a real threat to the companies using the software.
23 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
crashnburn 3/31/2025 6:24:09 PM (No. 1924466)
It happened to me at a major EDA tools company. They laid off all of the American application engineers, including me, to replace us with CHEAP Asian engineers. It wasn't my favorite job by a long shot, and the only things I missed about it were the paycheck, the trips to Hawaii, and the snack room. And, if I hadn't gotten laid off, I might never have met the love of my life. I eventually got a bucket list job which was followed by one of my best jobs of my career, so things worked out. But I could have done without all the stress.
20 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Californian 3/31/2025 7:01:08 PM (No. 1924494)
I worked in tech for 40 years.
1 in 100 H1b was world class brilliant. The other 99 were a complete waste of oxygen and actually harmful to the companies that paid them.
If we could manage to filter out the 99 then the H1b would be a great program but that'll never happen.
23 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
5 handicap 4/1/2025 5:46:29 AM (No. 1924647)
I'm for completely doing away with the system at least until such time as we get control of it and make it more workable and favorable to America!
16 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Strike3 4/1/2025 6:51:47 AM (No. 1924669)
Speaking strictly of the computer programming industry, my experience has been that the H1-B people were usually more skilled than the Americans and the work ethic was much better. I worked alongside Indians, Chinese, and one guy from Nepal, all top notch. You don't get into a job like that if you don't know your stuff. Everything we do could use some improvement and efficiency but deadwood doesn't last long in high-tech jobs. Low cost had nothing to do with their presence and there was no five o'clock stampede to get out the door every day.
9 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
billa57 4/1/2025 7:51:13 AM (No. 1924703)
We need to have an incentive for hiring US citizens first. If they can't fill all these positions with competent employees, then maybe they can look into hiring foreign candidates.
7 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
bpl40 4/1/2025 8:08:28 AM (No. 1924715)
Definition of immediate relative should fit. US culture and family structure.Not Indian or Chinese where wife,s brother’s spous’sIqualifies as f
6 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
WWIIDaughter 4/1/2025 8:27:40 AM (No. 1924724)
Do H-1B entrants and family members qualify for Social Security, especially disability?
Doge, please note: While doing consulting for SS Disability, I saw a case where the 63 year old mother of an Indian M.D. neurologist was found disabled based on SSI for "indigent elderly" provisions. This was @ 30 years ago when we had been instructed that a person over age 55, who spoke no English and was illiterate, and had a co-existing medical condition was "disabled" according to new (Swamp) regulations. Not making this up. You ought to know the real horror stories.
9 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
janjan 4/1/2025 9:10:05 AM (No. 1924749)
I also have 40 years of personal experience in IT with lots of H1B visa holders. They are not the best of the best. India’s students learn a skill in college. Their college degrees are in no way equivalent to ours. They have no knowledge of North American business practices and their communication skills are mostly dismal. Many are openly hostile about reporting to women. If you need a cheap heads down coder that shows up every day and works cheap they are an ok choice. I was never impressed and avoided hiring them if I could.
7 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Zigrid 4/1/2025 10:03:26 AM (No. 1924774)
Above my pay grade....my hiring employees has come and gone....I ran my company...paid my staff...met my monthly nut...and now I'm retired in a President Trump world that I find very pleasant and makes me happy....
5 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Corndoggies 4/1/2025 10:03:47 AM (No. 1924776)
Truck drivers are brought over as HB-1 employees. Do we really need foreign drivers?? That Austin semi driver couldn’t even speak English. You think he can read road signs ??? Arkansas is pulling ALL drivers in and giving them an English reading and writing test. 10k fines and their equipment is held till it’s paid. And the driver can’t leave.
7 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Sofia 4/1/2025 10:09:17 AM (No. 1924778)
SSNs are given to legal non immigrants authorized to work, they pay taxes and in to the social security using this number and they are not eligible for benefits.
I see a discussion on various other topics that have nothing to do with whether it makes sense to give people SSNs.
If you don’t have an SSN as a LEGAL non immigrant, how do you pay taxes?
4 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
TurtleDove 4/1/2025 10:41:35 AM (No. 1924810)
Back in 2015 Disney fired over 250 employees just before Christmas, replaced them with HIB Visa holders as they were much cheaper & told the employees if you do not train them, no severance. Ever since, I have hated this program AND Disney.
I strongly feel the business world should partner with education to train kids to fill these jobs.
8 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
mc squared 4/1/2025 12:09:51 PM (No. 1924845)
Poster 15 reminded me of something I learned decades ago. Henry Ford ran a school for the trades until it closed in 1952.
I highly recommend looking at the photos at the website:
https://www.thehenryford.org/explore/blog/back-to-school-with-the-henry-ford-trade-school
3 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
MattMusson1 4/1/2025 3:30:31 PM (No. 1924915)
AI programming will make a lot of H1B visas unnecessary.
1 person likes this.
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