Marjorie Taylor Greene introduces bill to end H-1B visas days after Trump backs the program: ‘Americans first’

I have to say that while it’s a stupid idea and motivated by spite , it’s more logically consistent than the usual MAGA shitshow

Playing “Who is the more extreme patriot?” Trump went in like an aimless wrecking ball, she’s going to do precision extreme moves. Bet she runs for prez. All or nothing.

She might want to heed Michelle Obama's warning...
- The first female president will be a Republican, and she'll be horrifying. MTG might fit that bill.
- What kind of special insight does a former first lady have to the American electorate?
- We’ll see if the monster she helped create crushes her, or, if for some bizarre reason trump doesn't run again, Republicans hate Democrats enough to vote for a woman.

Honestly., I really think workers should be able to move through borders like water. All it should take is applying for a job, getting the job, and moving (and filling out so the proper tax documents, etc before you start working.)

Are you a globalist? What you say makes perfect sense. I'm a globalist too. Being a globalist is the end result of societal progression, not some evil cabal. Everyone on earth should shoot for globalism and then the planet would be running on all cylinders.
- Pretty much I guess. I just think it’s a human right to be able to move freely and that nations and borders are just arbitrary things.
My current employer is headquartered in Austin, TX. We have software engineers, QA engineers, and other technical people working remotely all over the world, including Germany, Ukraine, India, Australia, and elsewhere.

Ahahahahahaha

It’s counterproductive and racist all around but holy hell is it funny when these goobers fight each other.

Dude they turned on her so hard for just not pivoting when Daddy did. Bless these cult antics

H-1B visas are how our universities fill crucial teaching roles. Ending them would be disastrous to American higher education.

To this administration, that would be a feature not a bug.
H-1B visas are how our universities fill crucial teaching roles.
I had an H1-B for three years. I was one of thousands of PhDs who brought expertise to US labs. US biomedical research is primarily driven by H1-Bs because very few in the US can afford to be scientists with the cost and debt levels of US education. So, the best and brightest in US universities head to Wall street to steal money.
I was offered a US permanent position and a J-1 Visa. Three years was enough for me.
Perhaps there could be a better way to fill those crucial teaching roles?
- Here's the problem with that, when your university is trying to hire the foremost expert in (field of study) and they are not from the US, that means there isn't an American that can fill that role. H-1B visas are how that gets done. Why would you hire less than the best?
- LOL. With Americans educated in schools who prioritize sports teams? Good luck with that.
Maybe the visas should be tailored to only that, then. Or come up with a specialist visa meant entirely for that.
As is, they are also used by IT bros...

Do not discount her, she's keenly sensing a disruption and looking to create a schism. Pay attention to her statements now basically "I just want everyone to be kind to each other, I am sorry I participated in the divisive politics of yesterday." This will ring a bell with a lot of folks in the rural areas. Then she leaps on his anti-populist mistake. I think we might be looking at the next leader of the party.

Honestly.... It would be so fitting.
America deserves its first cro-magnon president now that they make up such a huge portion of the USA

The program doesn't need to end, it needs to have severe restrictions on use.

Americans can totally do all these high skill jobs they just need some training!

Usually starting with an engineering degree...

It's not just the skills but the pay. H1-Bs are not too far off from slave labor since the person is tied to the company. H1Bs should be allowed to switch employers (after some initial trial period) and it will make them more expensive to keep, leveling the playing field with US workers.
- leveling the playing field with US workers.
  Why would the powers that be want that lmao
Let’s get them that
- "There is no Royal Road to Geometry, Your Highness"

Just because the Nazis are tearing their throats out, doesn’t mean any of them are on your side. In fact, they have already proven they will never be on your side.

Therefore, it is perfectly acceptable for you to enjoy watching them tear each other’s throats out

Lepards ate each others faces!

I can't speak for the tech industry only the system as a whole.

I think people calling it slavery or likening it to some kind of bonded labor are obviously exaggerating to a degree.

The only situation where its clearly problematic are for countries like China and India that have massive populations but still have the same green card cap as a nation a tenth of their size.

Everyone else on an H1b would generally be working towards a green card on a timeline of 3-5 years. Yes mobility is limited during that time (though not absolutely so) but I can't think of a country on earth where new immigrants don't have to work with their hands tied to a degree.

Right now employers only have to pay the prevailing wage to an H1b employee. This can be significantly less than the median.

I think the median should be the absolute floor. One can make an argument to have 75th percentile be the floor also.

I think if a company is allowed to pay below median wage for a large number of employees they should be forced to invest in local education / apprenticeship. Even if they are allowed to, there should be strict caps on this.

There are many H1bs that get paid above the median wage in the US but I think conversations around the tech sector tend to dominate so the perception is that these are mostly lower wage entry level workers. It's really the tech sector that has exploited the system the most so I think it's worthwhile distinguishing tech H1bs and therefore considering more significant restrictions on a sectoral level.

It is very close to slavery. Your employer gets absolute power over you and your immigration status. "You're fired" means "you need to leave everything you built and everyone you love behind".
Are you gonna risk leaving your family behind and being banned from the country to join a union? To protest bad work conditions.
It is a scourge of a system that legitimizes the exploitation of immigrants.
- Are you gonna risk leaving your family behind and being banned from the country to join a union? To protest bad work conditions.
  Since this is the tech industry, I'd add, to protest unethical practices towards end users?
- I am curious since it appears you are Canadian, what reform would you propose? The LMIA system in Canada faces similar issues but for a shorter period since immigrants with a high enough score on their application can secure PR within around 2 years. During those two years Canadian employers have similar leverage over immigrant employees. However under the American H1b system if you're terminated, you have up 60 days to leave which is often not enough time to secure a new sponsor. Under the Canadian LMIA system you have 90 days and can potentially apply for a temporary visitors extension which allows immigrants and their families a better shot at staying. This delverages the employer to a degree.
  There are several different aspects of policy that can be tweaked but the employer leverage is really a tough one to eliminate. Though it can certainly be cushioned by removing barriers to PR and offering a longer grace period in the event of termination as Canada has.
- I think the systems employed in the middle east where passports are confiscated and more overt coercion is involved are closer to slavery.
  The conditions you describe certainly exist but are the nature of employment based immigration everywhere. It's hard to imagine any country forgoing that initial period of leverage in their corporation's favor. What's uniquely exploitative in the US is keeping people in visa limbo for a period of 10 to 15 years because each nation has a cap of 7% of total green cards regardless of size or level of immigration. That mean the number of greencards available to a nation of 1 billion is the same as the number available to a nation of 20 million.
  In the end it's not the population of an immigrants origin country that matters, it's how many are coming to the US. If there are a larger number of immigrants admitted from one country via H1b then there should be a greater number of green cards alotted. This way that exploitative relationship doesn't stretch for 10 to 15 years which allows employers to engage in questionable labor practices.
  Immigrants have always had to come in, put their heads down, and work. That's the nature of moving to a new country. To a degree, anyone (even locals) that joins a new employer has a probationary period and has to avoid making waves initially, at least in the many parts of the country with at will employment. Those circumstances are not likely to change.
  Instead we should be focussed on immigrants getting at minimum fair (median) pay and having a clear pathway to permanent residency to curtail an employer's ability leverage visa status.
  If there is another "nation of immigrants" that does it better I'd be interested to hear about it. As far as I know Canada's LMIA system faces similar issues.
17ish years in tech here…
H1-B’s at one of my previous companies (2015-2017) were regularly working 70+ hours a week and getting paid less than new hires coming out of college.
They often were either isolated, or stuck within their one self made cliques of other H1-Bs from their country of origin. They did not try to socialize or make friends. More often than not, they’d leave and go home within 2 years. You could feel the despair and unhappiness.
Aside from how it impacted the H1-Bs (which from what I saw was almost all negative and fucked up), I wasn’t thrilled about seeing a multi-billion dollar org making so much extra money, and then not really distributing it correctly.
The H1-B thing helped one group of people to the detriment of everyone else at that org. I’m pretty sure you can figure out the only group that it benefited.
- This sounds more like H1b fraud (failure to meet prevailing wage for hours worked) on the part of the company rather than an issue with the H1b visa itself. More oversight is certainly necessary to ensure American companies don't break the law.

Ending H-1B will only further accelerate domestic layoffs for outsourced talent. 🙄

There is no law of nature that could not be taxed accordingly, too, but the country needs to have this option presented as part of the conversation.
That threat is always thrown out there to keep people from questioning H-1B as if we need to answer to wayward corporations, instead of the other way around...

I have long thought - since the 90s - that the H-1B program needs a lot of oversight and a revamping on exactly how it is governed, but I don't for a minute think that MTG understands the nuance here. Trying to talk about this in certain company is always fun, because it's like trying to talk about Israel in the early 90s - you'd get accused of being a nativist or whatever immediately w/ almost no thought, just like talking about Israel in frank terms would get people called "antisemitic". It seems that, like the Israel thing, it's kind of broken through into the national conversation at least vs. just people within IT only. Unfortunately, it seems to be nativists like Bannon and MTG trying to make the counter H-1B arguments, and I hate that.

If we really cannot find local talent for an endeavor, and it is truly something that is rather time-bound, sure, bring in people for 3-6 years, I guess.

But I think the terms that the person is under should not be something where they have much reliance on the good graces of a company. And I think finding easy paths for them to transition to full citizenship if they so wish should be there. And I think the requirement should be that they are paid 2x what the going rate here might be.

But using these visas for cheap labor for companies to exploit in things like programming jobs - most especially in a crappy job market exacerbated by things like AI - well, hell to the no. We have PLENTY of that talent in this country, FFS. Companies just want to suppress the cost of doing business here.

And for people saying that this is the alternative as opposed to shipping jobs overseas - bullshit, we can tax the shit out of overseas services, too. Apparently, Pedonald is even able to do such things as tariffs on goods without an act of Congress; it would be something that could be done on services as well.

Is there no middle ground, like keep the program but invest in education and tax incentives for hiring from US universities?

I think there are lots of options that could be explored. One is if these are for truly research types of things, maybe keep a smaller amount of the visas, but only for that. And make it easy for them to become full citizens if they wish. Make it easy for them to float between entities (corps, universities) so that they are truly free agents in the marketplace, etc., even if they don't opt for citizenship.
Another would be to find ways to fast-track truly rare talent right to a path to citizenship that is not tied to an entity at all. Or maybe it is, but for maybe three months as a trial run, then they are full citizens free to work for anyone (or not at all, or go to school again), and vote, etc...
But as for stacking the deck for corporations with lots of compliant cheap labor to be used in IT and engineering, keep American workers in line, and drive down wages....nah.
The supposed aims and the rationales given for the H-1B are easily punctured the minute you ask - wait a minute, if these are such precious commodities that cannot be found here, why the fuck would we send them packing in 3 to 6 years? Why wouldn't we do everything possible to entice them to stay and become full citizens? Surely they'll end up starting up businesses of their own, etc...it's truly the American dream. Why are we subbing a 3 - 6 year gig for the American dream, FFS?
- I live in a part of the country where I frequently compete for work (or did before I started a business) against candidates from all over the world. These are not roles that can be done by a unique, small set of people - it's like marketing manager type roles. So something needs to be adjusted - even just a little.
The H1B program is broken because it ties employees to their employers; it needs to be replaced with at least a work visa model with more freedom for immigrant workers.