How H-1B workers from India and other countries help the US remain dominant in tech, as some on the new “Tech Right” discover MAGA's racial-nationalist bigotry

This isn't ambiguous. — The new MAGA coalition has officially had its first internal debate, and it's over H-1b visas.

Noahpinion 2024-12-26 Noah Smith

Context & Ripple Effects

The dispute brings an unresolved H-1B tension into a coalition that includes tech-aligned voices: the program is presented as an input to US technology leadership, while earlier coverage documented concerns that it could be used to replace domestic tech workers with lower-paid foreign staff.

The program’s beneficiaries are not uniform. Prior coverage suggested restrictions on lower-skilled outsourcing applicants could shift more visas toward large US technology companies, while Indian outsourcing firms such as Infosys have been central to the application ecosystem.

First-order effects

The coalition fight makes H-1B policy a more visible political risk for tech employers and foreign workers who depend on continued access to the program.
Tech-right figures backing high-skill immigration must reconcile that position with a MAGA constituency described here as hostile to immigration on racial-nationalist grounds.

Second-order effects

Large technology companies and outsourcing firms may press more explicitly for rules that distinguish high-skill hiring from labor-substitution practices, because both are now being contested under the same visa label.
The debate strengthens the relevance of employer concentration: later USCIS coverage found Amazon led H-1B approvals from 2020 through 2024, making visa policy especially consequential for major platform employers.

Third-order effects

If this split persists, immigration access will be treated less as a standalone labor issue and more as a test of whether a political coalition prioritizes tech-sector capacity over restrictionist identity politics.
The program’s durability may increasingly depend on whether policymakers can separate its role in specialized talent recruitment from documented concerns about worker replacement; absent that distinction, both uses remain vulnerable to the same backlash.

The trend: H-1B policy is becoming a fault line between the tech industry’s demand for global talent and the immigration politics of its emerging political allies.

Discussion

@bucketlister88 @bucketlister88 on bluesky
Worked in tech with Indians on H-1B. Few were excellent (10%) remaining 90% were horrible. Their coding standards were sub-par and they'd push anything to production just to say they delivered. Our company experienced a huge shift in morale. The greater # of Indians the worse…
@walterolson Walter Olson on bluesky
TIL: the nativist lobby group that calls itself “US Tech Workers” doesn't actually represent any organized body of actual U.S. tech workers, and Its founder doesn't “appear to have ever done the type of job that an H-1b worker might be hired to do.” [embedded post]
@alternatebuild.dev @alternatebuild.dev on bluesky
imo “discover” here could be swapped for “finally forced to reckon with” — boy the related discourse on “the other site” makes me cynical, but we're going to remain optimistic! we can learn!
@gwensnyder @gwensnyder on bluesky
The world's richest man (from South Africa) and a Nazi propagandist from Malaysia spent their Christmas night complaining that the xenophobic base they helped manufacture to elect a nativist needs to understand that we still need to allow immigration for important groups like Naz…
@jdportes Jonathan Portes on bluesky
Ignoring the slightly clickbait title, @noahpinion.blogsky.venki.dev makes an important empirical point here about skilled immigration which is highly relevant to the current UK debate. — [1/n] — www.noahpinion.blog/p/indian- imm...
@anildash.com Anil Dash on bluesky
I used to know Sriram a long time ago; had coffee with him and met his wife and he told me he used to read my blog. After he fell in with the Andreessen types and became their pet during the Clubhouse era, I told him it was gonna end like this. We haven't spoken since, but... l…
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
The “fixed pie” fallacy is at the heart of much wrong-headed economic thinking. There is essentially infinite potential for job and company creation. Think of all the things that didn't exist 20 or 30 years ago!
@garrytan Garry Tan on x
Keep skilled immigration legal [image]
@teroterotero Tero Kuittinen on x
Heartbreaking to see American CEOs trying to make sensible arguments to persuade MAGA. Can they really be this naive?
@basedbeffjezos @basedbeffjezos on x
Maybe we phrase high-skilled immigration as critical talent acquisition and adversarial skill exfiltration from opponents. The US needs to continue to Project Paperclip all other countries at all times to stay on top. Maintain US tech dominance is paramount to protect freedom.
@grimezsz @grimezsz on x
Suddenly concocting anti Indian energy out of nowhere is embarrassing yall. Also, they were clear they planned to do this. My step dad's Indian, I had a fire childhood in a half Indian household. Indian culture jives very well w western culture.
@alecstapp Alec Stapp on x
This is 100% right. We should be doing everything we can to attract top global talent. Let's build a superteam and win forever. [image]
@tracewoodgrains @tracewoodgrains on x
this sounds cocky but is entirely true most fields are talent-constrained in major ways that become apparent as soon as you focus on anything specific that requires competence take journalism. many more important stories to tell than top-tier writers to tell them
@gavinwax Gavin Mario Wax on x
I have a friend whose entire job used to be interviewing American job applicants to claim that they were unqualified so the company could hire a cheaper H1B1 applicant. They never intended to hire Americans. The entire thing is a sick fraud. “Good faith recruiting” my ass.
@therabbithole84 @therabbithole84 on x
From the article: “Sixty percent of the highest-valued tech companies were co-founded by first- or second-generation immigrants.” [image]
@armanddoma Armand Domalewski on x
these people just openly want to make America a vastly poorer country. just incredible
@graduatedben Dr. Ben Braddock on x
A modest proposal that will make everyone happy: Move Silicon Valley to India. Founders, VCs, employees, entire companies. Build a replica of San Francisco at Navi Mumbai. Silicon Valley gets cheap engineers, and we get rid of Silicon Valley. Win-Win
@bgurley Bill Gurley on x
Big fan and supporter of @sriramk. Feel fortunate that he has volunteered to serve.
@lauraloomer Laura Loomer on x
This X employee wants you to know that “America wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Indian excellence”. Bio says he is an engineer at @x. [image]
@yacinemtb Kache on x
I guess I can't be surprised that people don't know how difficult it is to find and hire a team of top .001 percentile operators, because they aren't top .001 percentile operators and could never be even if they tried
@stillgray Ian Miles Cheong on x
Are you trying to cancel 𝕏 employees now.
@scottbelsky Scott Belsky on x
another example of the spread of inaccuracy via algo polarization...sending extra special holiday vibes to my friend @sriramk who is battling plenty of misinfo and worse at the moment. but bigger pic: excited to see smart and dedicated minds in tech determined to fix things.
@mattyglesias Matthew Yglesias on x
I don't think it's true that we built the bomb or went to the moon without foreign-born talent. [image]
@themagahulk Lucky on x
My wife worked for a company that was purchased by a private equity firm that immediately brought in an Indian CEO. He pushed out all the founders and replaced all the C-suite with Indians. He used Covid as excuse to force every employee to take a “temporary” 10% pay cut and he
@baxate_carter @baxate_carter on x
let me get this straight, you want companies to favor american workers even if they aren't as qualified as their H1-B counterparts purely because the american was born here some might call that an inalienable trait. So the people who are against DEI, want a DEI program to
@suhail @suhail on x
The open racism of Indians is a gift from the weak minded to us that we need to plan for the future. This is just the beginning.
@levie Aaron Levie on x
High skilled immigration has been central to America leading the world in tech. The biggest misunderstand about high skill immigration stems from people thinking that the market opportunities in tech, and tech-adjacent fields, are zero sum. This essentially imagines innovation
@paulg Paul Graham on x
@levie The problem with the phrase “zero sum” is that the kind of people who mistakenly believe things are zero-sum tend not to know what it means...
@alecstapp Alec Stapp on x
There is not a fixed number of tech jobs in the US. When we block skilled immigration, companies just hire more in foreign countries. Letting talented people move here is the ultimate win-win. [image]
@ritchietorres Ritchie Torres on x
The personal attacks on Sriram Krishnan are disgraceful. Sriram is an American Dream success story. He represents what is best about America, and his haters represent what is worst. America should be defined not by color but by creed.
@jackposobiec Jack Poso on x
J.D. Vance: New Congress Must Go After Corporations Replacing Americans with Foreign H-1B Visa Workers https://www.breitbart.com/...
@growing_daniel Daniel on x
When I was a little kid I dreamed of someday becoming a Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence. Then an immigrant stole my job
@davidu David Ulevitch on x
The funny thing about the Sriram hubbub, which is really a nothing burger except on X, is that he renounced his Indian citizenship to become a US citizen, which is a lot more of a commitment to America than most people make. 🙂🇺🇸💯
@firstadopter Tae Kim on x
Immigration is America's superpower. The U.S. has dominated global technology by attracting the world's best and brightest talent. Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO who guided the company's transition to cloud and created trillions in value, was born in India.
@richardhanania Richard Hanania on x
“If they're so smart, they can build their own country” I love when white proles who have done nothing in their miserable lives think that they're Edison or John Rockefeller. The CEOs of major tech companies have done a lot more to build the country than you, sorry to tell you. […
@eyeslasho @eyeslasho on x
Let me express this another way: A reason that Indian-Americans may get more “hate” than East Asian-Americans is because they share more of the often-unpleasant personality features of European-ancestry Americans: They're more likely to be aggressive, individualistic,
@bennpeifert @bennpeifert on x
Don't think being a model minority will satisfy the racists Don't bring them in as political partners and be surprised racism is their priority Don't stoke racism against blacks, mexicans and middle easterners and be shocked when they come for educated Indians Don't be
@richardhanania Richard Hanania on x
Usually, we should stick to ideas and not focus on credentials. But when your entire thing is racism, and you want to take credit for what previous generations have built, you have made it about identity. It becomes fair game to point out how unaccomplished these racists are. [im…
@catehall Cate Hall on x
The Discourse about whether it's bad to let cheap H1B labor undercut American workers is incredible because employers ***aren't allowed to pay H1B employees less than their American counterparts*** In practice it is substantially MORE expensive to employ H1Bs
@boonafterboon Boon on x
blaming immigrants because of skill issue, classic
@andrewyng Andrew Ng on x
One of the best things the U.S. can do is make high-skill immigration easier. @levie is right. It is awful that the wait time for a green card can be over a decade, and that after waiting years someone can still be forced to leave simply because they lost a job. Fixing this is
@presentwitness_ @presentwitness_ on x
Now that H-1B has become a topic of discussion, here's my story: Born in Appalachia, went to a top-tier university, interned in wealth management and trading, recruited for all the top investment banks and research firms, only offer I received was to cold call South American
@rokhanna Ro Khanna on x
Yes, I am proud of his support. I am for reforming the H1-B system. And I guess the test of your influence with the new President is whether @sriramk will have his role. My money is on him. Having people smart about tech and the future of AI is good for America.
@josephpolitano @josephpolitano on x
a smarter man than David would perhaps realize a campaign stoking anti immigrant backlash against Mexicans, Haitians, Guatemalans, etc would inevitably lead to anti immigration backlash against Indian tech workers. Don't play with fire and then say it's a psyop when you get burnt
@alecstapp Alec Stapp on x
New all-time favorite community note just dropped [image]
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
@Austen Exactly
@austen Austen Allred on x
Look, two things are true: 1. H1B is used to bring in absolutely brilliant engineers, without whom American competitiveness diminishes and the entire US economy is harmed. 2. H1B is poorly implemented and abused like crazy.
@harmlessyarddog @harmlessyarddog on x
A white dude applied to work at X for free, didn't even get a response. There are ethnic mafias inside tech HR, this is an open secret. [image]
@teroterotero Tero Kuittinen on x
Elon getting devoured by his pet tiger
@kurtschlichter Kurt Schlichter on x
There's an easy solution to the H1-B “highly skilled” visa issue. Since it's so vital we have foreigners coming in because there are allegedly not enough Americans, companies who want them can pay $50K a year tax on each visa worker they hire. If they are that essential...
@annagorisch Anna K. Gorisch on x
If I could destroy just one immigration myth, it would be the claim that it's cheaper for employers to hire someone with an H-1B. It is exactly the opposite. Filing fees for one H-1B are about $5k, then there are lawyers. You also have to retain an employee to manage internal
@sarthakgh Sar Haribhakti on x
Those most outraged about companies allegedly hiring on H1 to save costs clearly have no idea how many hoops workers and companies have to jump through to get H1s It is exceptionally hard to compete with citizens who are much easier and cheaper to hire in competitive industries
@thestalwart Joe Weisenthal on x
Vivek Ramaswamy says the reason US companies hire foreign born talent is because of the degeneracy of American culture, which prizes jocks over nerds, and Stefan over Urkel in Saved By The Bell [image]
@vivekgramaswamy Vivek Ramaswamy on x
The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn't because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if
@parikpatelcfa @parikpatelcfa on x
The CEO of Google is Indian The CEO of Microsoft is Indian The CEO of Adobe is Indian The CEO of IBM is Indian The CEO of Chanel is Indian The CEO of FedEx is Indian The CEO of Palo Alto Networks is Indian The CEO of Perplexity is Indian So yes. Indians are “high skilled
@parikpatelcfa @parikpatelcfa on x
Community notes remain undefeated [image]
@parikpatelcfa @parikpatelcfa on x
If Indian immigrants are so bad for America why did America name a whole state after us [image]
@dmitry140 Dmitry Shevelenko on x
I'm an American who is gainfully employed because an Indian immigrant on a visa founded a company in the US. Thx @AravSrinivas for creating 100+ American jobs.
@sarthakgh Sar Haribhakti on x
Try looking up roles played by Indian immigrants in the invention of pentium microprocessor, hotmail, ethernet switching, java, usb, transformer that power the current llm wave, and much more
@paulg Paul Graham on x
As a rule the people who know the most about something are the pros whose incomes depend on doing it well. The pros at judging tech talent are venture capitalists. If venture capitalists' opinions differ from white nationalists', it's clear who's more likely to be right.
@parikpatelcfa @parikpatelcfa on x
I came to America on an H-1B visa The process was a shitshow and I was very lucky to be picked in the lottery U.S immigration is broken, but the answer isn't making it harder for talented and hardworking people to come here
@parikpatelcfa @parikpatelcfa on x
What's the word for when someone takes the actions of two individuals who happen to share a common heritage and generalizes them to an entire race?
@jlippincott_ Josiah Lippincott on x
“These third worlders with fake credentials are HARDER workers and SMARTER than you and your neighbors. You need to let them rule over you.” Nope!
@stillgray Ian Miles Cheong on x
There would be no 𝕏 if it wasn't for the skilled immigrants who helped make it what it is today under the direction of Elon Musk, a skilled immigrant. [image]
@wolfejosh Josh Wolfe on x
Truth. India is an important US ally and we should be doing more not less against shared threats especially those that wish us both harm.
@jlippincott_ Josiah Lippincott on x
These are the two Twitter executives who banned my account for 2 and a half years without cause. So, yes, I have an axe to grind with “high skill” Indian migrants. [image]
@firstadopter Tae Kim on x
Only in America could an immigrant like Jensen Huang—who started by cleaning bathrooms, washing dishes and attending a state school—meet Curtis and Chris at Denny's, get VC funding and cofound the world's most consequential company Nvidia. Immigration is America's superpower.
@noahpinion Noah Smith on x
H-1b workers are good for the economy. And on an unrelated note, all the rightists now bashing Indians on X and other platforms are full of crap. https://www.noahpinion.blog/ ...
@parikpatelcfa @parikpatelcfa on x
As long as we hating on Indians let's cancel my college roommate Sheel Patel fuck that guy he still owes me $35
@levie Aaron Levie on x
This chart shows the net migration levels of inventors to and from countries. America has more inventors coming here than all countries combined. This is our economic secret weapon that has been tuned for hundreds of years. [image]
@yacinemtb Kache on x
“noooooooooo hire me please nooooooo i can't compete noooooooooo”
@raghavendrapv Raghav V P on x
How do you not see the economic contributions of the highly-skilled immigrants? Is it that you want to keep this class of contributors oppressed? I hope you see the broader picture that prioritizes highly-skilled immigrants (and not beneficiaries of chain immigration) is an
@mrinconcruz Manny on x
Laura makes a good point—removing caps as Sriram suggests would create an application spamming situation. Which by the way is already the case with applications from India in many areas, including student visas. My own take is that Srirams position is unwise. The skilled
@theworthyhouse Charles Haywood on x
The reason Musk wants more Indians is because he knows that to get to Mars, he needs top talent RIGHT NOW, and he can skim the cream of Indians to do so. Rebuilding American education, on the other hand, will take decades, and require a birth rate reversal, neither of which can
@jackposobiec Jack Poso on x
Removing caps for green cards / H1B is a nonstarter
@theworthyhouse Charles Haywood on x
Musk's claim that there are not enough “talented and motivated” engineers in America may be true, but the reason for it is decades of vicious hobbling of white men. For example, it is extremely difficult for white men to get into top engineering programs at a university. Most
@pitdesi Sheel Mohnot on x
GOP has been far more aligned than the dems. Helped win the election Skilled immigration is causing a fissure though. Many on the right do not want ANY immigrants in this country, esp Indians. 47 has picked well so I think we're good but the Groypers are out in full force
@cloudwatch199 Sidharth on x
LauraLoomer , your tweet is a masterclass in ignorance wrapped in xenophobia. Sriram Krishnan's (@sriramk )appointment is a reflection of expertise and leadership—qualities you seem incapable of recognizing. Silicon Valley wasn't built by clinging to outdated fantasies; it
@matt_levine_1 Matt Levine on x
All rhetoric against H-1B visas is basically: “I'm losing in the labor market, but I want a participation trophy anyway” Workers compete vs. each other. If one works at a combination of [quality / speed / cost] superior to the other, the former wins. Train harder next time!
@nasescobar316 Nas on x
@AllTheInternets It's what makes America weak. They have shut American Workers out of the workforce in favor of H1-B Indians. The only people who benefit are India, Greedy Tech Companies & Greedy Investors. American Citizens are the ones losing in this situation.
@rishijoesanu Malabar ChRishimas on x
When will American right wingers learn that country caps on immigration is a DEI policy? America leaves Indian Physics Olympiad winners on the table in favor of Costa Rican farmers because of country caps
@luke_metro @luke_metro on x
Need a podcast where Laura Loomer debates venture capitalists
@tanknothink Lorenzo on x
what “American STEM students” lol
@tunguz Bojan Tunguz on x
LOL, yeah, the largely pro-immigration technocratic Silicon Valley libertarians and the nativist, isolationist, rural anti-tech right have very little in common aside from the loathing for the anti-free-speech woke Left. It will be interesting to see how long this alliance can
@fischerking64 FischerKing on x
Repeat observation, but there is something absurd about importing ‘high-skilled’ foreigners at the same time as the USA has been eliminating advanced programs in public schools that might identify domestic talent - all in the name of DEI. We don't even know how much domestic
@alltheinternets Zeb Anderson on x
@nasescobar316 Indian Americans are literally running the most successful (also American) companies in the world. Sundar Pichai (Google), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Arvind Krishna (IBM), etc. It's what makes America great brother.
@mattyglesias Matthew Yglesias on x
Who could have predicted crude immigration-related attacks coming from the Trump movement? [image]
@davidsacks David Sacks on x
Who took your free speech away // Who gave it back [image]
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
@stclairashley We need to fix the legal immigration process
@davidsacks David Sacks on x
It's a different person with the same name. If you knew anything about tech, you might even know he's a VC at a different firm. Have you told the President yet? Maybe it's time to stop with this crusade before you embarrass yourself further.
@mattyglesias Matthew Yglesias on x
@JTLonsdale What are low-end H1B immigrants?
@davidmarcus David Marcus on x
This whole cabal against @sriramk is totally out of control. There's no self serving agenda whatsoever here, nor character flaws. We should celebrate people like Sriram who are going to leave so much $ on the table to serve the country. Enough of this nonsense.
@vivekgramaswamy Vivek Ramaswamy on x
America-First means we want America to WIN. Playing for second place doesn't cut it.
@davidsacks David Sacks on x
@LauraLoomer @sriramk I agree there's a contradiction. You'll be happy to know that no one on the AI team will be working on immigration policy so their views on green cards are irrelevant. I think we can also agree that before even discussing legal immigration, we should complet…
@davidsacks David Sacks on x
Number of illegal aliens/year: 3+ million. Number of employment visas/year: 140k. As a start, maybe we should focus on the 95% where we all agree.
@lauraloomer Laura Loomer on x
@DavidSacks @sriramk Average tech policy bro: “AI is going to put software engineers out of work within 5 years!” Also average tech policy bro: “We need to import tens of thousands more software engineers from India!” Which one is it, @DavidSacks? You should let us know what thes…
@alecstapp Alec Stapp on x
Only 14% of US residents are immigrants. But immigrants are responsible for 36% of aggregate innovation. Two-thirds of this contribution is due to making their native-born collaborators better. [image]
@rmsherman Rob Sherman on x
.@sriramk was one of the first PMs I worked with after joining Facebook 12+ yrs ago. I don't know yet if I'll agree with all his views on AI, but he's highly qualified. We should all want someone with his expertise advising @realDonaldTrump & @DavidSacks on how the US can lead on
@davidsacks David Sacks on x
Actually, I completely trust @StephenM to handle immigration policy in the White House. What I oppose is a baseless witch hunt against a highly qualified American for a role as A.I. adviser.
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
@iamyesyouareno @MarioNawfal It comes down to this: do you want America to WIN or do you want America to LOSE. If you force the world's best talent to play for the other side, America will LOSE. End of story.
@basedtorba Andrew Torba on x
This “tech labor shortage” is total nonsense. They think you're stupid. If you're a White male engineer in this country and you're unemployed right now you can't even get an interview because many of the hiring managers at top tech firms are Indian and only hire their own.
@bgmasters Blake Masters on x
End H-1B and keep the O-1 visa. We want Einstein and Von Neumann to come here, not armies of foreign “tech workers”
@armanddoma Armand Domalewski on x
Laura Loomer, a woman whose sole talent seems to be publicly humiliating herself over and over and over, is lecturing machine learning engineers about what it takes to build software. What a joke
@jtlonsdale Joe Lonsdale on x
My friend Sriram is America First. For USA to have the highest standard of living, generous govt services, and strongest military, we need to recruit the best and brightest and build the best companies. I'm against more low-end H1B immigrants; but let's win at the talent game.
@jamessurowiecki James Surowiecki on x
This is exactly like saying, “There are over 330 million Americans. Surely there must be enough great basketball players among them to build the best team. Why would you bring foreigners like Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic and Giannis and Wemby here to play for American teams?” [im…
@theworthyhouse Charles Haywood on x
America for the Americans. Everyone else, GTFO.
@lauraloomer Laura Loomer on x
Deeply disturbing to see the appointment of Sriram Krishnan @sriramk as Senior Policy Advisor for AI at the Office of Science and Technology Policy. It's alarming to see the number of career leftists who are now being appointed to serve in Trump's admin when they share views [ima…
@davidsacks David Sacks on x
@LauraLoomer @sriramk Point of clarification: Sriram didn't say he wants to remove all caps on green cards. He said he wants to remove *country* caps on green cards. Right now, every country in the world gets allocated the same number of green cards, no matter how many qualified …
@levie Aaron Levie on x
This high skilled immigration debate is wild because you have a lot of people who don't build things commenting on the type of talent it takes to build things.
@matt_levine_1 Matt Levine on x
This clash between the MAGA-right and the Tech-right over skilled immigration is just an appetizer, btw The main course is going to be when the MAGA-right discovers that most of the Tech-right leadership are married homosexual men
@nasescobar316 Nas on x
Did any of yall vote for this Indian to run America? [image]
r/neoliberal r on reddit
Indian immigration is great for America
r/ProfessorFinance r on reddit
Indian immigration is great for America

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