←back to thread

1233 points mriguy | 9 comments | | HN request time: 1.179s | source | bottom
Show context
bhouston ◴[] No.45308820[source]
This is actually smart. Many H1B visas are used to undermine fair labor wages for already local talent. We should ensure that H1B visas are for actual unique talent and not just to undercut local wages.

H1B is ripe with abuse - this article by Bloomberg says that half of all H1-B visas are used by Indian staffing firms that pay significantly lower than the US laborers they are replacing:

- https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-h1b-visa-middlemen-c...

replies(16): >>45308851 #>>45308895 #>>45308920 #>>45308959 #>>45308961 #>>45309096 #>>45309181 #>>45309231 #>>45309383 #>>45309470 #>>45309492 #>>45309522 #>>45309678 #>>45309878 #>>45310172 #>>45310539 #
1. vasilipupkin ◴[] No.45309181[source]
this is not smart. If you want to reform an H1B program, reform it. This is not a reform, this is a bizarre attempt to do what? stop companies from hiring foreigners? they will simply hire them in their foreign offices or offshore.
replies(2): >>45309219 #>>45310602 #
2. fastball ◴[] No.45309219[source]
What is reform and what is not reform? This is a change, not a cancellation. That sounds like reform to me.
replies(3): >>45309348 #>>45309545 #>>45309589 #
3. vasilipupkin ◴[] No.45309348[source]
reform is a type of action that tries to identify a concrete set of issues and fix those issues, implies a positive change.

this is a change in the direction of significantly reducing hiring of foreign workers by American companies, which is bad for everyone. It's bad for American companies, because it will reduce their growth. It's bad for American workers because when our companies don't grow, neither does our economy and that hurts Americans. So it's a change, but it's a dumb change.

4. throwaway89201 ◴[] No.45309545[source]
In other democratic countries, reform is mostly proposed in parliament. Experts and other government institutions are publicly consulted. Reform is seldomly passed under emergency grounds, and H1B rules are an unlikely area for emergency executive action that has a transition period of not more than 2 days.
replies(1): >>45310212 #
5. cmurf ◴[] No.45309589[source]
Reform is done legally. The statute this falls under requires the fee be based on the administrative cost to process the application.

Changing the statute requires Congress to act.

replies(1): >>45309733 #
6. fastball ◴[] No.45309733{3}[source]
So if congress passed a law to impose a $100k fee it is reform? That is the only aspect that is concerning?
replies(1): >>45313022 #
7. AngryData ◴[] No.45310212{3}[source]
Of course in other democratic countries their parliaments haven't purposefully and willingly seceded their powers to the executive branch and spent the last 50 years completely ignoring the entirety of the people's will, needs, and desires as they gathered and concentrated as much additional power as possible.
8. ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7 ◴[] No.45310602[source]
Unless they follow this up with some major excise tax, this is the obvious outcome of this, IMO.
9. cmurf ◴[] No.45313022{4}[source]
Yes. No.