American companies have long exploited the H-1B visa and related programs to cut labor costs rather than address genuine skill shortages. Though the visas were designed for hard-to-fill specialized roles, many firms have used them for basic coding and support jobs easily staffed domestically, according to a report in the New York Times. Nearly two-thirds of all H-1B approvals last year were in computer fields, with salaries matching the national median, showing little evidence of scarcity.
Laid-off tech workers told of being replaced by H-1B contractors soon after training them. Major outsourcing firms such as Tata and Infosys file thousands of visa applications annually, supplying low-cost foreign labor to U.S. employers who seek to avoid higher domestic wages. Companies also manipulate the permanent labor certification, or PERM, process by advertising fake job openings while already intending to sponsor a foreign worker. Facebook and Apple have faced federal actions over such cases.
When scrutiny grows, some firms simply move the work overseas. A New York IT employee said his position at WPP was replaced by a team in Bangladesh. Critics argue that offshoring, outsourcing, and visa misuse form a single cost-saving system that undermines U.S. tech employment.