Amid major tech layoffs in teh US, the focus has again shifted to the H-1B visa programs which the Donald Trump administration is planning to change. But before any change comes into effect, US tech workers, Republican lawmakers are up in arms against big tech companies laying off American workers and then petitioning for foreign labors. After Microsoft which announced job cuts in several phases this year, now Intel has said they are planning to cut more than 25,000 jobs in a major reset. Vice president JD Vance has attacked Microsoft for laying off 9.000 workers and said he doesn’t believe in the ‘bulls**t story that the company can’t find workers in America. Now, Trump’s former aide and a staunch critic of H-1B, Steve Bannon, said all visa programs should be cut. He said ‘Einsteins’ can stay in their countries and contribute to making their countries great, instead of coming to the US. Or, the US can explore a program to bring ‘Einsteins’.The situation in the Silicon Valley is a festering sore, Bannon said on his podcast, adding that the projection is that 12 million trained IT graduates can’t get jobs because US is bringing foreign workers. Bannon said no one can prove that foreign workers are better educated, but tech companies want indentured servants, “people who will work 24 hours a day at half the cost because they are afraid of being sent home”. “We need to cut all the visa programs. If we are going to do it, let’s do it hard-core and clean it up,” Bannon said. There is always a way to get ‘Einsteins’, Bannon said, adding that he personally believes for world peace and prosperity, ‘Einsteins’ should remain in their countries and make their countries great again like they are doing in Japan.
JD Vance says displacement of American workers worries him
Speaking at a bipartisan event co-hosted by the Hill and Valley Forum, Vance questioned the layoffs of big tech companies and said it does not make any sense to him that they fire Americans to hire foreigners. “That displacement and that math worries me a bit. And what the president has said, he said very clearly: We want the very best and the brightest to make America their home. We want them to build great companies and so forth. But I don’t want companies to fire 9,000 American workers and then to go and say, ‘We can’t find workers here in America.’ That’s a bulls**t story.”
