Welcome to the Great Visa Worker Purge! Here we have corporate America running a fake cover story about a recession so they can purge well over a quarter million visa workers without going to prison. Why do they need a cover story? Because perjury comes with a prison sentence just like wire fraud does. More than 11 years ago the CEOs testified under oath in Washington that there was a “skills gap” in America and the government absolutely had to raise the visa worker limit. They had to completely remove the limit on L-1 workers so companies could hire as many foreign workers as they wanted and fly them here for as long as they wanted. There simply weren’t enough IT workers in America to do the job!
What Really Happened
American workers were replaced wholesale by foreign tech workers. Disney replaced its entire IT staff and made the American workers train their foreign replacements. Despite the law expressly forbidding U.S. companies from replacing American workers with visa workers CEOs threw National Security under the bus and imported foreign workers by the plane load. Think about that the next time you are choosing what movie or streaming service to spend your money on. Disney wholesale replaced you, the U.S. citizen and they still want your money.
Six years ago, by some estimates, there were 800,000 visa workers in America, most of them in California working for Tech companies. Some eleven years ago Republicans set out on a course to turn America into the largest slavery state in the world. They gladly increased the visa limits so their sponsors could import more slaves. After all, market rate for U.S. citizens was $140-$180K at the time and you could bring in visa workers claiming to have a decade or more of experience for $60K or less. This lead to more campaign contributions, a worsening real economy, and higher unemployment. But hey! Congress could pass out free money to investment firms and keep the stock market soaring!
Massive Layoffs and Low Unemployment
I’m laughing my ass off at the financial press talking about the conundrum at the Federal Reserve. We have massive layoffs and low unemployment and they think they still need to hike rates. No fools! You have to first admit you were complicit in a crime.
What we have here is a case of the criminals destroying the evidence before the the investigators arrive. When a visa worker is laid off they have 60, in some cases 90 days, to find a new job then they have to go back to country of origin. They can neither collect nor file for unemployment. What you are seeing now is the physical evidence of just how bad Tech companies were abusing the U.S. Labor market and laws.
We had these layoffs in 2022. Facebook made news with 12,000 then someone said 18,000. January was adding to the pile.
It’s Not a Recession – It’s the New Minimum Wage
Companies used to get away with paying $60K or less regardless of years of experience. Not anymore. Skilled labor classified as Level 4 (two years and a day of work experience) now must be paid $220K. Even the bottom end has to be paid $90K. Now the visa workers which were letting Tech companies ride the profit gravy train with biscuit wheels are being put on a boat and sent back home.
We’ve got another ten months of massive IT worker layoffs at Tech companies and a dropping unemployment rate until the bulk of the 800,000 visa workers have been purged from the payroll. You know the visa worker program was only supposed to be for unique skills that could not be found in America for any price. If you need it you will pay for it.
Why do you think there was such a rise in boot camps the past couple of years? The Indian firms needed to manufacturer low wage U.S. citizens to stay in business.
Too bad for Disney (DIS). No self respecting IT worker will ever work there again.
