I’ve been to San Francisco precisely one time. It was lovely back in 2008 before it degenerated into a literal shithole. At the time, I didn’t care about its labor force. I was living in London, perhaps the most cosmopolitan city on the planet then. We immigrants vastly outnumbered our English counterparts, and they didn’t seem to mind.

But now, America First is having problems defining itself. Is it “Americans First” or “The Country First?” Are they one and the same? Or is the institution vastly different from its people?

I’ve immigrated to the United Kingdom, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Italy. So I will give you a point of view you won’t find anywhere else. And my conclusion may surprise you. After all, though I benefitted from the NHS, I explained in August 2021 why that turned me against socialized medicine.

For my time in the UK, SG, and HK, I needed to acquire an employment visa to live and work in those places. For the Philippines, I got a spousal visa, thanks to Pam. And for Italy, I used my Italian passport, which obviates the need for a visa.

Let me talk about my time in the UK.

My company had to prove that I was the only person they could find to do the job I was hired for so that I could live and work in the UK. This wasn't hard for them since I was already doing that job in New York. And they indeed proved that to the satisfaction of Her Majesty’s Government. Only then was I allowed to enter. And then, I was not allowed to work for any other company in the UK for the duration of that visa. Only after I obtained citizenship was I allowed to move freely about the country.

H-1B Visas

This is similar, but not the same, as the H-1B visa in the US. Straight from the Department of Labor website, it reads:

The intent of the H-1B provisions is to help employers who cannot otherwise obtain needed business skills and abilities from the U.S. workforce by authorizing the temporary employment of qualified individuals who are not otherwise authorized to work in the United States.

It continues:

The law establishes certain standards in order to protect similarly employed U.S. workers from being adversely affected by the employment of the nonimmigrant workers, as well as to protect the H-1B nonimmigrant workers. Employers must attest to the Department of Labor that they will pay wages to the H-1B nonimmigrant workers that are at least equal to the actual wage paid by the employer to other workers with similar experience and qualifications for the job in question, or the prevailing wage for the occupation in the area of intended employment – whichever is greater.

At first glance, this seems absolutely fine. No US worker is displaced. Allegedly, wages aren’t driven downward by employing people at a lower rate than another US worker would be paid. If used as intended, it’s just filling an employment hole.

So what’s the issue?

Fraud

The truth is that the H-1B visa program is full of fraud. The first kind comes from employers.

Some employers file H-1B applications for positions that don’t exist or aren’t genuinely needed. Another way is that employers may report higher wages to comply with prevailing wage requirements but pay employees less. Finally, you’ve got the “body shops.” They’re third-party consulting firms that apply for H-1B visas and then outsource the workers to other employers, often violating program rules.

Next is the fraud that employees commit. Foreign workers may submit falsified degrees, certifications, or experience to qualify for the visa and engage in employment not authorized by their H-1B visa terms.

Finally, we’ve got third-party fraud. Fraudulent intermediaries may file multiple applications for the same candidate with fake employers to increase the chances of selection in the lottery. Also, we’ve got “visa mills,” entities that exist solely to exploit the H-1B program by acting as fake employers, often charging foreign workers for sponsorship.

This particular type of fraud impressed me, as written in The Register:

When I was at USCIS, you would have registrations or petitions with very common names. The belief from some of the fraud folks was that some of the common names were inserted in there and then these businesses, after they won the lottery, would then go out and actually find somebody [with that name] as opposed to having a real candidate in place.

In this sense, you can argue human trafficking built Silicon Valley.

Sure, it’s not the same as sex trafficking, the outright slavery that still exists in parts of the world, or even the type of labor that built Dubai in the relentless 120-degree heat.

But it’s trafficking, nonetheless.

Why are we so tolerant about it?

The Holiday Fiasco

Vivek Ramaswamy, a man I respect, wrote his first awful take on the state of American STEM education on X:

His is a long tweet, so I’ll only quote the first part, and you can read the rest later:

The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the TRUTH:

Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG.

A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.

A culture that venerates Cory from “Boy Meets World,” or Zach & Slater over Screech in “Saved by the Bell,” or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in “Family Matters,” will not produce the best engineers.

I can’t tell you how bad this take is. But I’ll try.

The real problem is not knowing the required skills to succeed in a particular field. The ignorant have no way of knowing they’re clueless. Management psychologists would call this “unconscious incompetence.” You don’t know what you don’t know. And kids? They know nothing. How could they?

If my high school calculus teacher had told me how important it was to know calculus for derivatives pricing, I’d have studied the subject much harder. Even my college calculus professor didn’t tell me this. Figuring out areas under curves for no practical reason? It was, and remains, a complete waste of my time.

The jock who learns how to deal with his teammates is far more likely to be successful because nothing can be done without a team.

If Vivek wants a root cause, it’s that no one gets a road map with the skills they need to succeed until after they’ve committed to a career choice. Thankfully, this is improving with online education, but it was damn near impossible to figure out in 1992.

Elon Musk jumped right on the case, replying to this tweet:

People took the “subtard” comment hard. Here’s what I think is happening.

Vivek and Elon want America to compete at the highest level. But to do that, they think we need more elite engineering talent. I could find neither supporting mass immigration, open borders, or anything like what the newly frightened right wing is arguing over.

I see both sides’ arguments. Some want an entire immigration moratorium, like we had from 1924 to 1965. But if I’m a business owner and I need elite engineering talent and no one inside the country is available, I’d be pissed off if The State wouldn’t let me hire someone with those skills, willing to work for me, at American pay, from abroad.

The Donald showed where he stands by retweeted another of Elon’s posts:

Surprised? I’m not.

Wrap Up

Governments like immigrants who will pay taxes. So, instead of keeping those engineers abroad, working for US companies, but paying taxes at home, get them over and pay into the IRS. Surely, that’s what The Donald must be thinking.

Meritocracy wins the day—but only if the H-1B program is fixed. That way, America will know it’s getting only the best and brightest—and needed—from abroad.