Don't give Silicon Valley more H1B visas

Their economic argument, that the industry suffers from a shortage of workers, is false and misleading. Big tech companies take advantage of the H1B program to drive their bottom line. The law permits companies to lay off their own employees in favor of foreign workers doing the work in the states or overseas. Think about that. The law does more than look the other way at firms that hire foreign workers instead of American citizens; it allows companies to ditch their own employees so they can hire foreign nationals. Remember the recent story about laid-off Disney workers who were forced to train their foreign replacements?

Not surprisingly, tech firms use the provision to their advantage. In late 2014, Microsoft laid off 21,000 workers. In September 2015, Hewlett Packard announced it was cutting 25,000 to 30,000 workers. That was on top of the 55,000 jobs it slashed the year before.

Another problem with the H1B program is the law rewards companies for outsourcing their training programs. About half, or 40,000 of the visas handed out each year, don’t go to firms such as Microsoft, Apple or Facebook, the companies we think about when we hear H1B. They go to professional offshore outsourcing firms such as Cognizant, which received 9,000 H1B’s last year.

Outsourcing firms operate an almost pyramid-like system: they bring foreign nationals to the United States, who then learn the jobs of American citizens. Then these foreign workers return home overseas.