Yves here. Even over this normally quiet holiday period, the Musk-oligarch and now Trump fight with MAGA over H-1B visas continued at a fierce pitch in the social media sphere. Readers may have seen some of the information snippets below (for instance, Lambert featured key parts of the Robert Sterling tweetstorm below). But when you put the major elements of the case versus the H-1B visa from the American workers perspective, as Tom Neuburger does below, it’s overwhelming.
By Thomas Neuburger. Originally published at God’s Spies
For those who bought the “Learn to code” lie (source)
“We live among predators, lions and tigers and bears, each determined to eat what they can of us before another takes a bite first.”
—Yours truly, here
This is something everyone who’s worked in high tech has known for decades. As I put it a few days ago: “H-1B is a wage-theft scam, because the rich aren’t rich enough yet.”
Now for some detail. First, from reporter Lee Fang:
Next this, about Amazon and its H-1B visa applications for warehouse jobs:
And this, from right-wing commenter Ashley St. Clair. (She could lose her seat at the table if she keeps on like this.)
Finally, consider reading this data-rich thread regarding the “body shops” involved in H-1B worker trafficking:
Within which we find such goodies as this — ten times the statutory limit of approvals per year. Your (well, actually their) government breaks the law for them voluntarily.
And this — almost all of these wages are well below market:
‘Learn to Code’
It’s very simple. High tech companies like Google and Apple (and, really, all of them) bring in foreign H-1B workers to 1) create indentured employees — people who can only live in the U.S. by staying in the good graces of their employer — and 2) keep Americans from earning too much. Because money.
Americans in high tech have been suffering through layoffs since 2022, massive ones, with no end in sight, and H-1B visas exist to fill the gap. Take that, well-paid American worker. “Learn to code” indeed.
We live among predators…
