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Comment by artyom | Hacker News Reader

I understand this is a politically charged topic, and every comment is going to be a flame war nonetheless, so here we go.

No matter your political inclination, overabusing green cards to import cheap labor in detriment of the American wage is not even a secret: everybody does it. So the claim is, at least, correct in its formulation.

However:

- It doesn't include Amazon, the biggest offender by far?

- Suspends green cards but not H1Bs? so what the point is exactly? replacing cheap labor, for a potential revolving door of cheap labor? make sure cheap labor is never guaranteed to stay, so they don't dare to think about not being cheap anymore?

- People really thought that Microsoft was different to Tata in methodology and discipline? Did you really have to interact with people in either company? I did, and let me tell you, "highly skilled" or even "skilled at all" is nothing short of an exaggeration.

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Hopefully H1B is next, or at the very least capped so there can only be a certain number at a time, and if someone wants to get another h1b visa they need to ensure that someone who is here currently is gone before it's issued. Too many "temporary" workers who come into the country, work "temporarily" then end up moving here. Ask yourself how many people from Indian origin own houses in San Francisco and the surrounding area? Are we sure they aren't putting pressure on housing for Americans? How can they prove that, until they can prove they don't impact citizens in any way, they shouldn't be here.

Its easy to take a telescope to a fruit bearing tree, point at the roots and say look its sucking out all the nutrients from the soil.

I do not condone abuse of any system, including visa/gc system, it should only go to those that truly are builders and contribute to growth of the overall system and not act as parasites, but that's a trait not exclusive to just the people (some targeting is probably legit) you're targeting.

I love that analogy "take a telescope to a fruit bearing tree, point at the roots and say look its sucking out all the nutrients from the soil."

But, can we say that H1B and immigration is what fueled the current boom. Or maybe it just went along for the ride.

It is a fact that many immigrants have played a pivotal/transformative roles in many different industries and their booms, nothing as great as the tech boom though. It is one of the few core engines of US staying on the frontier, but not the only engine.

If there was no H1B program in the US, I would guess that Silicon Valley would be in Hong Kong instead of California.

If there was no EPA then Shenzen would be in the SF bay area instead of China.

H1B is explicitly a dual-purpose visa (e.g. temporary and permanent immigration).

When I was in the US on one myself, my company kept pushing me to go for a green card, but I never intended to stay permanently, which made things a little awkward... I remember basically ghosting the immigration firm they assigned to me.

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