As a former H1-B: makes sense. H1-B is abused a lot, and importing new entry-level workers when unemployment is at record highs after COVID makes zero sense. Although I'm sure Hawaiian judge will disagree.
It's not "banned", the proposal is to temporarily suspend it. When it is resumed, however, I would ask that they put a lower bound on the wages paid. Say, $100K for programmers - the "real" middle class living wage where I live. That will reduce abuse significantly. To reduce it even further, switch to the auction system, where a fixed size quota is allocated, and employers "bid" salaries for workers. I do have skin in this game: I'm paid a lot, and this will create more competition for me, but it will improve the ridiculous situation where people get into debt to get degrees and then can't find jobs. Why anyone in the US be against this is a mystery to me.
Stopping workers coming in from one place isn’t about making sure Americans have jobs tho. It doesn’t magically change the cost of rent. It doesn’t magically educate the uneducated. Nor should it. This is about being able to report to middle class white people that ‘immigration stopped’.
What's also hidden behind the numbers is that a lot (most?) of H1-Bs come from India and China, both of which have insanely long green card backglogs. Because changing jobs while on H1-B is a perilous affair (and employers know it), those folks end up basically in indentured servitude to their original H1-B sponsor employer, especially if they have families and/or property in the US.
