This article examines the controversy surrounding the H-1B visa program in the United States, highlighting concerns over layoffs in the tech industry, accusations of displacing American workers, and debates over the economic and immigration implications. Despite layoffs, tech giants continue to apply for H-1B visas, raising questions about the program's role in the current labor market and immigration policy. Experts debate whether the program fosters innovation and skilled labor or contributes to wage suppression and job displacement for U.S. citizens amid broader immigration reform discussions.

US Tech Companies Face Scrutiny Over H-1B Visa Program Amid layoffs and Immigration Debate

Tech companies in the United States have insisted repeatedly that they need high-skilled foreign workers through the H-1B program, but the visa is coming under greater scrutiny as claims circulate that American-born graduates are being pushed out of the high-paying sector.

While Big Tech firms lay off thousands of workers — often specifically noting to investors the efficiencies in AI that allow them to reduce headcount — many of those same companies are still submitting H-1B applications, be they new visa holders or renewals, prompting further outcry from skeptics of the program who want far stricter policies from an administration that rode to power on bold immigration promises.

"I don't think you can disentangle these, they have reinforcing effects," Ron Hira, an associate professor at Howard University and long-time H-1B critic, told Newsweek of the factors impacting American computer science and engineering majors.

"Nobody knows how much the AI is actually impacting, how much offshore is impacting, the depression and labor demand, but not just H-1B but also OPT [Optional Practical Training], they're all competing for a shrinking labor demand and so that has major impacts on the wages and job opportunities for recent graduates."

The H-1B has exploded in the past few decades. Around 400,000 visas were approved in 2024, more than twice the number issued in 2000, with the majority of these being renewals of existing visas, rather than new applications. Most of these foreign workers are employed by large tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, who pay to keep hold of foreign-born workers.

Those on H-1Bs have more difficulties changing jobs, as their immigration status is tied to their employer. Critics have also suggested that companies can pay these employees less than American-born employees doing the same job.

Disconnect Between Layoffs and Visas

The ongoing reliance on the H-1B comes as some of these same large companies have announced sweeping layoffs, with mid-level and senior roles often hit hardest. Some 80,000 tech jobs have been eliminated so far this year, according to the tracker Layoffs.fyi.

Immigration skeptics have said employers are favoring cheaper foreign workers over U.S.-born staff, though those companies have strenuously pushed back on such claims. Microsoft, for example, has tried to denounce these claims after going through multiple rounds of layoffs in recent months.

"Our H-1B applications are in no way related to the recent job eliminations in part because employees on H-1B's also lost their roles," the company said in a recent statement. "In the past 12 months, 78 percent of the petitions we filed were extensions for existing employees and not new employees coming to the U.S."

For critics of the visa program, that doesn't add up.

In 2023, U.S. colleges graduated 134,153 citizens or green card holders with bachelor's or master's degrees in computer science. But the same year, the federal government also issued over 110,000 work visas for those in that same field, according to the Institute for Sound Public Policy (IFSPP).

"The story of the H-1B program is that it's for the best and the brightest," said Jeremy Beck, co-president of NumbersUSA, a think tank calling for immigration reform. "The reality, however, is that most H-1B workers are classified and paid as 'entry level.'
Either they are not the best and brightest or they are underpaid, or both."

"It's a program that displaces qualified Americans with cheaper workers from abroad," Beck added.

While this is a prevailing argument, the data does not always back it. In 2022, the libertarian Cato Institute's David Bier found that the median wage for U.S. workers the previous year was $45,760, per the Department of Labor, while the median H-1B wage was $108,000.

"So, for some folks, if there's a concern of wage depression," Ben Nucci, an immigration and compliance attorney at the law firm Snell & Wilmer, told Newsweek. "You know: 'Hey let's hire a bunch of foreign nationals and pay them peanuts' and it's the U.S. workers that want a decent wage, we've got prevailing wage requirements in the Department of Labor."

That refers to regulations require employers to pay a similar rate to visa holders and U.S.-born workers, as dictated by the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The Trump administration has reportedly looked at raising the prevailing wage requirements, to bring them more in line with the salaries paid to U.S.-born workers, though an official announcement is still pending.

How the H-1B Fits in Immigration Debate

The H-1B is just one aspect of the broader immigration debate that has long raged in the U.S. over how much immigration is acceptable and beneficial, and how the flow of new arrivals should be managed.

"Something that's actually stayed pretty steady in the last five years is that Americans, for the most part, actually say that legal immigrants mostly fill jobs that American citizens don't want," Sahana Mukherjee, associate director of research at the Pew Research Center, told Newsweek.

Pew found in August 2024 that 61 percent of those polled felt that legal immigrants filled jobs American citizens wouldn't do, essentially unchanged from when the same question was asked in 2020.

"We also know, from public opinion pulling, that four in 10 Americans say that highly skilled workers should get top priority for legal immigration and another 45 percent say that they should get at least some priority," Mukherjee said, acknowledging that the results may be different if those polled were asked specifically about the H-1B.

While Beck and Hira make arguments echoed by many immigration reformists – including Trump's MAGA base – that immigration should be prioritized only after Americans are employed, housed, and financially stable, there are many who broadly support legal, work-based visas as a way to boost the economy.

Nucci, the attorney, told Newsweek that many employers who opt for the H-1B or similar programs do not necessarily do it lightly, given that such applications cost thousands of dollars and often require months of waiting for approval.