H-1B Visas Under Scrutiny as Big Tech Accelerates Layoffs

Newsweek

12 hours ago

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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
Harvard graduate students applaud during the 374th Harvard Commencement in Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 29, 2025.
Harvard graduate students applaud during the 374th Harvard Commencement in Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 29, 2025.
RICK FRIEDMAN/AFP via Getty Images
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.
"The clients I deal with would be happy to get a U.S. worker to fill the job," Nucci said. "But it's normally after a significant period of time of advertising and trying to search for someone, and not getting it, that they see this as one of the only options for them, because they are able to recruit someone."
Nucci said that even if an employer files for an H-1B and gets approval, they could still opt to hire a U.S.-based worker if a better candidate comes along in the meantime – something which may not be reflected in the data.
Priscilla Chan, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Lauren Sanchez, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Tesla CEO Elon Musk attend the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the...
Priscilla Chan, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Lauren Sanchez, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Tesla CEO Elon Musk attend the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2025, in Washington, DC.Are STEM Graduates Losing Out?
As of July, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has already reached the 2026 allocation for H-1Bs. While not all will go to those working in Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) roles, many AmericanSTEM graduates may be impacted at a time when companies are downsizing, looking to cut costs, and embracing AI.
The July jobs report released Friday showed a deteriorating labor market in the U.S., with just 73,000 jobs added for the month. Revisions to earlier data were also significant, with a combined 258,000 jobs slashed from May and June's numbers.
Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February showed 6.1 percent of recent computer science grads were unemployed, while 16.5 percent were "underemployed", meaning they were in jobs not requiring their degree. Those figures were 7.5 percent and 17 percent for engineering graduates.
The central bank data put these two majors among the highest unemployment rates, alongside sociology, information systems and management, with Hira, the Howard professor, telling Newsweek that there are no laws requiring Americans or green card holders to get priority before any H-1B applications are allowed through.
"Over the last 15 years, there's been a drum beat by policy makers, by politicians, to push American students into STEM majors, and in fact, we've got record numbers of people graduating with STEM majors, in engineering and computer science, all to face a now very bleak job market," Hira said.
"I think it's dangerous for politicians to keep claiming STEM shortages when there's no factual basis for it."
This leaves questions hanging over tech companies, and the federal government's approach when STEM companies dominate H-1B allocations. In Fiscal Year 2025, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Google, Apple, Oracle, Cisco, Intel, and IBM all appeared in the top 50 employers granted visas – ranging from a few hundred to over 6,000.
Mukherjee told Newsweek that a big shift in recent years among H-1B holders is the education level they arrive with. In 2000, 57 percent of H-1B holders held a bachelor's degree, with 30 percent had a master's. That has essentially flipped in the decades since, suggesting visa holders may now be more qualified than the American-born grads applying for the same jobs.
What Will The Trump Administration Do?
With immigration such a core element of President Donald Trump's return to the White House, there remains heightened interest in how his administration will change work-based visas – with the H-1B the main focus for both advocates and critics.
Trump has been seen as a supporter of the program overall, saying he understands the need to attract the best and brightest workers to the U.S. in order to help the economy, while Vice President JD Vance has been openly critical of the program, accusing tech companies of replacing American workers with foreign-born substitutes.
During his first term, Trump did attempt to raise wage requirements for the H-1B, but the policy was not pursued by the Biden administration.
Now, a plan to introduce a weighted approval system, instead of the current lottery system that dictates most H-1B visas, is being considered.
"It's a baby step in the right direction, but it's not nearly sufficient," Hira said. "I mean it's a small reform, there's many other reforms that need to be made to the program."
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters near the Rose Garden after returning to the White House on Marine One on July 29, 2025 in Washington, DC.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters near the Rose Garden after returning to the White House on Marine One on July 29, 2025 in Washington, DC.Nucci, who advises employers on the H-1B, he was cautious of a skills-based approach, which he said could also be abused if not handled correctly. He emphasized that many of his clients would rather have an easier time employing those already in the U.S.
"Employers are pretty frank with me that they would rather not have to pay the fee and have a system in place where they have to wait until the person is in H-1B status, and even then, they are on the clock," Nucci said. "There's a maximum of six years on the H-1B status. You can go past that six-year limit, but only if you're going to sponsor the employee becoming a permanent resident.
"That's a big decision, because if you sponsor someone for permanent residency, you put in all this money, the moment they become a permanent resident, they are free to go."
Newsweek reached out to the Department of Labor, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service for comment, but did not receive responses ahead of publishing.