(02-12-2020, 01:23 PM)p_rushing Wrote:

(02-12-2020, 08:22 AM)mikesez Wrote: H1B visas are the one type that Republicans proposed leaving alone. 
Democrat politicians never met a visa they didn't like. Republican politicians take a dimmer view, but they love the H1B.
You're correct that the H1B depresses wages and probably lowers tax receipts.
Illegal immigration also depresses wages. But the illegals themselves are not a burden on the federal budget because they cannot claim any benefits. The H1B recipients also claim very few benefits.
The one good thing is that the typical illegal immigrant wants to spend the rest of their life in this country. They will try to buy a home. They will raise their kids here. The typical H1B recipient tries to save as much of his salary as possible to take it back to his home country.  So in my opinion H1B visas depressed the local economy even more than illegal immigration.

H1Bs are very similar to illegal immigrants, they are just legal. I know republicans want them and I still disagree with it. They buy products, apartments, etc, they can just do it legally. Both try to save money and both want to send as much money home as possible. There are some who both would like to stay in the US, but most would leave if given the option that their home country provides the same options. H1Bs are also basically slaves. When they come over, they cannot leave their company or they have to start all over. If they end up without a project/job, they have limited time to find one or they are then here illegally.

Every illegal burdens the social services because you can get services without IDs.

I disagree with both of you about H1B visas.  As someone who has worked in a software startup, bringing it all the way to a successful, established company, we had the hardest time finding quality software developers.  There was so much competition from the larger, more established companies, that we literally could not find enough of them without importing them from overseas.  

As I recall, back around 1995, there were just around 64,000 H1B visas available each year, starting on April 1.  Now there are around 200,000.  These are only available to highly educated people who have jobs waiting for them in the US.  There was a window each year that started on April 1. When we started out, we could get an H1B visa for an employee pretty easily.  Within a few years, however, the window would open at 12:01 AM April 1, and within minutes, all the H1B visas would be taken.  We were completely shut out.  

This impacts our competitiveness as an economy.  Our inability to import quality software developers has a negative impact on our technological competitiveness, and it hurts the kind of small startups that help make the US the greatest economy in the world.

Also, sometimes people come over here and get a great education, but because they are not allowed to stay, they have to take that education back to their home country.  It would be so much better if we would let them use that education in this country.

The list of geniuses who have come to this country and made a huge impact is miles long.  A few that you might recognize are Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Carnegie, Albert Einstein, Rupert Murdoch, Eddie Van Halen, Shad Khan, and there are thousands more that you would not know but have made huge contributions to this country in fields such as business, science, and entertainment.  It's what has made this country great.  Shut the doors, and we're just another country.  A lot of people are afraid of competition ("they depress wages!") but the fact is WEALTH IS CREATED.  IT IS NOT A ZERO SUM GAME, where if one person makes a dollar more, you make a dollar less.  These people are VALUABLE.  We have to let them in if we want to remain great.

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