This did not just hurt Americans and Indians. People from all around that world that use the H-1B programs honestly and provided valuable talent have also been harmed by those who have abused the system and ruined it.
H-1B’s death should cheer Indians and Americans.
This is about an article I wrote telling India why it should support America terminating the H-1B visa program:
H-1B was created to fill genuine shortages of highly skilled workers. It was supposed to allow American companies to recruit exceptional people whose expertise could not be found here. Instead, body shops, in collaboration with American employers, turned it into one of the most corrupt labor-arbitrage schemes in modern America.
The body shops learned to flood the system with applications, manufacture experience, embellish résumés, and present ordinary technology jobs as positions requiring rare skills. Workers were brought in at lower wages and placed at American companies through layers of contractors and subcontractors, allowing the companies to pretend that they had not directly replaced anyone.
American workers were harmed the most. Many were ordered to train their foreign replacements before losing their jobs. Experienced engineers were pushed out and told that their skills were obsolete, while younger and cheaper workers were brought in to perform substantially the same work. Age discrimination became an unspoken part of the business model.
These were decent, hardworking Americans who had studied, built careers, supported families, and contributed to their companies for years. Their loyalty was rewarded with termination notices because executives had discovered a cheaper and more controllable source of labor.
The control was central to the scheme because an H-1B employee whose right to remain in America depended on the sponsoring company could not negotiate like an American worker. Leaving a bad job could mean losing legal status and being forced to leave the country. The decades-long green-card backlog made this dependency even worse. Employers gained workers who were less likely to demand raises, report abuse, challenge management, or resign.
Then the companies wrapped this exploitation in the language of diversity, innovation, and skilled immigration. Executives claimed there were real talent shortages while laying off qualified Americans.
The darkest part is that the corporations escaped most of the blame while Indians became the public face of the abuse. American workers saw jobs being transferred to Indian contractors, heard stories about fabricated experience and embellished résumés, and concluded that Indians were cheating them. Some applicants certainly participated knowingly, and that dishonesty must also be acknowledged. But the system was created, expanded, and defended by companies that made billions from it. This is all they lobbied for in DC, not real solutions to the backlog.
The consequences have been devastating for Indians in America. Millions of legal immigrants who studied hard, worked honestly, paid taxes, created companies, and contributed enormously are now viewed with suspicion. The achievements of an entire community are being overshadowed by unscrupulous players. The anger has spread far beyond H-1B and mutated into open anti-Indian hatred.
The visa also exploited the Indian workers it brought to America. Their legal status depended on their employers, and the decades-long green-card backlog left many unable to change jobs, start companies, or plan their lives. They were sold the American dream and then trapped in a form of indentured servitude.
That is why this cancer, the H-1B visa must be terminated, and terminated now. And this is why I am speaking up so strongly. Enough is enough.