Independent journalist Lee Fang recently uncovered how Big Tech corporations are continuing to hire foreign workers through the controversial H-1B visa program, all while American employees are being laid off en masse.
Per Fang’s research, thousands of Americans in the tech sector have been laid off.
12,000 American workers lost jobs at Google, while 10,000, 20,000, and 10,000 lost jobs at Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta Platforms, respectively.
Big Tech Chooses Foreigners Over American Workers
Several weeks after announcing these layoffs, these tech giants continued to hire foreign workers through the H-1B visa program.
Microsoft is another firm that laid off American workers while applying for more foreign visas. They have a long history of internal outsourcing to lower wages. Here's Bill Gates in 2008 testifying in Congress, asking policymakers to increase the cap on H-1B visas. pic.twitter.com/we9Xs0IC5n
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) May 16, 2023
According to Fang’s report, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, wrote a letter back in January, announcing Google’s tough decision to lay off 12,000 employees.
The following month, Google submitted applications for low-wage foreign workers to arrive in America and occupy high-skilled technology jobs.
Google submitted scores of applications for foreign workers to occupy certain roles, such as analytical consultants, software engineers, and user experience researchers.
According to recently published data from the Department of Labor, thousands of H1-B foreign worker visas were requested by companies that carried out significant layoffs in 2023.
This includes Amazon, Facebook/Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Palantir, Salesforce, and Zoom.
Google sent an emotional email announcing 12k layoffs in Jan.
Just one month later, Google filed for foreign visa high tech workers at lower pay. New data shows tons of Silicon Valley firms laying off American workers simultaneously applied for H1B visas https://t.co/MxMsDp5qk6
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) May 16, 2023
Fang’s findings largely matched research that the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) conducted.
This revealed the leading 30 tech companies announced a total of 85,000 layoffs, while simultaneously importing roughly 35,000 foreign H-1B visa workers to take high-skilled, white-collar jobs from American workers.
Republican Presidential Candidates Sound Off Against H1-B Visas
The H1-B question has been one of the animating issues on the populist right. Back in 2020, then-President Trump implemented reforms that mandated companies which sought foreign H1-B visa workers to pay the highest possible salaries.
Additionally, he protected several Americans’ jobs at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) from being displaced by foreign H-1B visa workers.
In a similar vein, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who is now running in the 2024 presidential election, publicly criticized the H1-B visa program for how it allegedly favors large corporations at the expense of white-collar American workers.
He was especially perturbed by how American tech workers would be fired and replaced by foreigners working for lower wages under this visa scheme. DeSantis believes this program is unjust.
