Conservatives in the Republican Party have been racked by disagreement the past few weeks over H-1B visas, the program that brings in foreigners for primarily lower-skill tech positions. Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have come out in favor of the program, while prominent Republicans like Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller and Laura Loomer vociferously disagree, concerned it takes away jobs from Americans.
The Democrats generally come down in favor of the program, although there have been some prominent exceptions like Sen. Bernie Sanders. Trump spoke critically about the program in 2016 but has since softened his position. Ramaswamy has likewise stated that the program needs major reform, causing many to suspect the MSM is overly hyping up the divide on the right.
The 1990 Immigration Act launched the program, allowing employers to bring in temporary foreign workers with at least a bachelor’s degree or the equivalent. The workers are granted a three-year stay, which can be extended to six years. If they have an approved petition for a green card, it can be extended further. Each year, up to a cap of 65,000 new H-1B visas are allowed, and another 20,000 for foreigners who have a master’s degree from a U.S. university, but there are five times as many exceptions granted in addition to those, totaling three quarters of a million.
While tech is the largest sector that uses the program, falling into professional, scientific and technical services, the visas are also used in smaller amounts for educational services, manufacturing, health care and social assistance. Amazon was the largest employer to use the program in 2024, with 3,871 approvals.
Tech companies claim the field is growing so fast that hiring only American workers cannot keep up with the demand. But the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) retorts that companies are shrinking their numbers of American workers at the same time. […]
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