H-1B visa holders should be first fired

If that sounds rascist, it isn’t; the statement does mean that America and the goodness here should be for Americans first and for foreigners after. In Vanishing visas / Uncertain future for unemployed H-1B holders, Carrie Kirby of the SF Chronicle looks at some of the difficulties impacting these people in the current economic client. Now I would be the first to step up and say the offending companies ought to be prosecuted if the allegations are true. But I do not feel particularly sorry for the many Indian nationals (who were granted the majority of these visas in the last few years) who are having to pack up and return home; they took a gamble coming here and for awhile it paid off spectacularly, but now that bubble has burst along with the stock market.

I’ve worked with many people who came on H-1Bs and as a group they are as intelligent and hardworking as any other large group of people. Some of them have been and are my friends and when I was in a people management position I hired a few. When the U.S. unemployment rate is rising to longtime highs as it is now, however, we need to rethink some of the consequences of our generousity. I have thought about this issue for some time and I truly believe that the visa law ought to be rewritten so that employers are required to terminate any and all H-1B staffers holding the same or similar positions as Americans before any American staffers are terminated. True, this probably would have saved my own job but I felt this way long before August. We have a great country and I truly believe in sharing the bounty but the bounty must first be used to care for ourselves.

Note: Green card (permanent resident) foreigners are a grey area in this discussion. My feeling is that they should be treated the same as American citizens or perhaps be put into a third category (that is, if there are reductions required even after all H-1B holders are terminated, then permanent residents would be terminated before citizens). Also, I have consistently referred to H-1B visas but I would also put holders of the other work visas (such as Ls, issued to Canadians) in the same group.