The Right’s Explosive Feud Over High-Skilled Immigration

A real quandary this one. On the one hand I have surpassed my tolerance for illegal immigration into this country and the extreme effort to accommodate it. We are a country of immigrants and we all know that. The difference is nobody is against legal immigration. H-1B provides a path for legal immigration. On the other hand H-1B potentially robs new graduates from positions in IT and Finance. My problem with that is unfortunately I do not believe what American universities are producing today are competitive in those fields. American academia has chosen to indoctrinate instead of educate and that is our loss. Until America can compete with global academics I believe H-1B is necessary for the security of this nation.

As an IT Professional for 30 years, who has worked as a contractor for Microsoft, I have seen the abuse of the H-1B program first hand. I have told many, many people that if I had it to do over, I would not have chosen to enter the IT field. Having said that, the elephant is the room is: H-1B visa workers have a maximum of 6 years they can work before they have to return to their country of origin taking all their knowledge and expertise with them. That loss makes the U.S. weaker not stronger. If the H-1B offered a path to citizenship without requiring a corporate sponsor it would actually be a beneficial program.

I think I’m beginning to appreciate both sides. There must be ways and means to compromise and resolve the situation. Penalize employers who violate the rules and put the fines into STEM scholarships

While your article touches on major pros and cons of H-1B it does not mention how these workers under this program bring their entire families over and as the aged parents come here are allowed to receive social security payments. They able to received food stamps and health care. I could go on and on.

D Griffin, well said. Until graduates begin paying a penalty for university indoctrination and lack of educational rigor, those institutions will continue on their decline. Though the structure of this visa encourages abuse by employers, it is a stellar alternative to illegal immigration in strengthening our country both economically and militarily, and bringing new law abiding citizens into our immigrant nation.

H-1B is the best way to get competent self supporting people into the USA. Using this system we know exactly who these people are and all of them are extremely competent. H-1B is the best system for accepting and acquiring new citizens if THE USA as many if these people use H-1B as their first step in becoming citizens. I have first hand knowledge of H-1B and in every case I know these people have greatly helped the USA.

"“Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long,” proclaimed Ramaswamy."

Loaded words, these... and a false equivalence. It's all about 'standards' -- what does a job or task require, in order to be performed properly? "Mediocre" does NOT mean "substandard" -- far from it! By definition, a "mediocre" employee is one who is dependable, who can be relied upon to do the job s/he was hired to do. OTOH, "Excellence" is elusive -- it's NOT seen on an every-day basis... it's a "one-off"... not planned-for, not scheduled, but 'serendipitous'. AND, it's rarely something that happens solely as the result of a single employee acting alone; rather, "Excellence" is, most often, the result of 'group synergy' -- individuals who have learned, over time, to work together in harmony... the proverbial "well-oiled machine".

Give me a "mediocre" employee over an "excellent" 'One-Shot Johnny/Janey' who doesn't/might-not work well with others.

I agree with Mr Griffin, it is a tough decision. We have to stay competitive now. We also need a highly motivated group of young men and women to train and excel in the tech fields. May I throw in from left field, don’t add legalized marijuana if highly motivated is your goal! A scaled back visa program has my vote.

It’s a debate worth having. Clearly, we need to ensure that the program isn’t abused in favor of cheap foreign labor. It should be a call to our illiberal bastions of Marxist indoctrination that they are failing our students and our country. The latter, they care less about.

Universities who receive Federal funding should be required to produce top notch American workers in All fields, including tech. For too many years universities have become indoctrination centers placing more importance on what your politics are rather than your grades. It’s time to get the politics out and bring the excellence back to our systems of study.

Most of us want ILLEGAL immigration to stop. If American kiddos are getting their butts kicked by foreign tech workers, perhaps they should study and practice more. (I am a secondary teacher with students who do the minimum to pass). If we allow sub-par Americans to take jobs we will continue to erode. Allow the H-1B immigrants to become citizens. Their children will hopefully be as successful and help keep American strong.

Until we prioritize excellence in education, our workers cannot compete at the highest level on the world stage. That puts us at a disadvantage when it comes to technology. We are a nation of immigrants and if legal immigrants come here to make our nation better and stronger, that's a good thing. However, I believe companies are exploiting these visas and that must be stopped.

America is the A team on the world stage and should attract the best and brightest. The underlying problem not mentioned is that US public education teaches too much WOKE and not enough reading, writing and arithmetic like schools in China and India do. Time to revisit Department of (so called) Education

I think Musk opening up schools that promote STEM can help. I think parents need to get involved in educating their children. Our kids are just as smart, it’s that the public schools are more concerned with social issues. We need to teach our children reading writing, math it will serve them well.

I see the lower test scores/intelligence levels of U.S. government funded education system as a goal of the enemies of our Constitutional Republic. No one is against immigration, legal immigration. We all should be against any program of intentional lawlessness (including illegal immigration). H-1B's can be used with corporations put on notice to publish past salaries with any annual pay increases to those Visa holders, as a check and balance for department of labor to monitor, and bring charges, fines if proven. That is the burden. Those who've caused our lower education standards will now point fingers and watch (and hope) the new administration might implode.