The GOP candidate pledges to get rid of a the system he calls “indentured servitude.”
GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has vowed to “gut” the system for H-1B temporary worker visas if he wins the White House.
It’s the very system he’s used in the past to hire high-skilled foreign workers for the pharma company that built much of his wealth.
From 2018 through 2023, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services approved 29 applications for Ramaswamy’s former company, Roivant Sciences, to hire employees under H-1B visas, which allow U.S. companies to employ foreign workers in tech and other specialized jobs.
Yet, the H-1B system is “bad for everyone involved,” Ramaswamy told POLITICO.
“The lottery system needs to be replaced by actual meritocratic admission. It’s a form of indentured servitude that only accrues to the benefit of the company that sponsored an H-1B immigrant. I’ll gut it,” he said in a statement, adding that the U.S. needs to eliminate chain-based migration.
“The people who come as family members are not the meritocratic immigrants who make skills-based contributions to this country.”
Ramaswamy stepped down as chief executive officer of Roivant in February 2021, but remained the chair of the company’s board of directors until February this year when he announced his presidential campaign. As of March 31, the company and its subsidiaries had 904 full-time employees, including 825 in the U.S., according to its SEC filings.
When asked about the mismatch in the GOP presidential hopeful’s policy stance and his past business practices, press secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the role of a policymaker “is to do what’s right for a country overall: the system is broken and needs to be fixed.”
“Vivek believes that regulations overseeing the U.S. energy sector are badly broken, but he still uses water and electricity,” she said in a statement. “This is the same.”
Ramaswamy, who is himself the child of immigrants, has captured headlines for his restrictionist immigration policy agenda.
While not new to the GOP playbook, his rhetoric has at times gone farther than the other candidates, as he calls for lottery-based visas, such as the H-1B worker visas, to be replaced with “meritocratic” admission. He’s also said he’d use military force to secure the border, and that he would deport U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants.
H-1B visas are highly sought after, and the demand for these workers continues to increase: For fiscal year 2021, U.S. businesses submitted 780,884 applications for just 85,000 available slots, jumping by more than 60 percent.
Ramaswamy acknowledged his own experience with immigration during his opening remarks at the first GOP debate in Milwaukee.
“My parents came to this country with no money 40 years ago,” he said. “I have gone on to found multi billion-dollar companies.”
Ramaswamy’s stance on H-1B visas is reminiscent of the 2016 Trump campaign, when then-candidate Donald Trump, who has also hired a number of foreign workers under H-1B visas for his businesses, took a hardline stance on these foreign workers before later softening his rhetoric.
As president, Trump temporarily suspended new work visas and blocked hundreds of thousands of foreign workers from U.S. employment, as part of his sweeping effort to limit the number of immigrants coming into the United States.
He’s not 100% wrong about the H1B being indentured servitude. By many accounts, the only employees Twitter was able to retain were those here on H1B, which doesn’t allow them to change employers without renewing their visa status. A good friend of mine was stuck in a bad employment situation because she was here on H1B. Employers definitely exploit that visa status, pretending that paying the visa processing fees gives them the right to abuse the employee.
But heaven forbid we just reform it to give the H1B visa holder greater employment rights and more freedom to switch jobs easily. Never forget that “meritocracy” is always code for rich. Those who can afford the best schools, the best tutors, who have the best social connections to achieve in their careers. A “meritocratic” system absolutely would not be more fair.
Sure, a good buddy of mine was in a similar situation. Most of the team abandoned ship as we saw the company dying but he was stuck because changing jobs, even with a sponsor, reset the immigration clock. This is the guy of guy we want: highly skilled and valuable, wants the American way of life, a solid and valuable citizen, if we just let him become one…. And yeah they had a couple children born here, but what do you do? If some asshat company decides to deport him for wanting to get paid like the rest of us, it’s not like he could leave his kids behind, def puts them being citizens by birth
Who wants to go on Newsmax and point out that Ramaswamy is just an uppity brown person trying to take true American patriot Donald Trumps job?
/s
The bible thumpers already don’t like him simply because he’s a Hindu.
Then who is voting for him?
Given their devotion to the orange one, I’d say not many once his polling bubble pops.
He’s literally Soros funded.
Climb the ladder, then take it away for the next person! Thanks, Ramasmarmy!
Sure, H1b is broken. It’s too easy for companies to use for lower wages , rather than high skills that are in short supply. It’s too easy for companies to abuse their workers since they can be deported if they lose their job/sponsor. Most of all it’s broken because even when it is a path to immigration, it takes too many years, too much uncertainty, too much disruption of family life. We need to fix this to be more fair to the people involved and especially their families
bro i have met graduate students who get routinely raped by their professors and cant do anything because instant deportation
That’s fucking disgusting. I hate that I’m aware of this now.
I kept reading to see what he actually wanted to implement, and does this MFer really wanna prevent H1B visa holders from bringing their families? That’s… uh… interesting…
The problem is that he doesn’t offer a concrete solution that has been vetted against current figures, and is deemed a more viable alternative.
Yes, H1B and L1B visas are hilariously broken, even compared to the shitshow that is the visa system in the UK. I work in tech, and I can safely say that if you go to most Tier 1 service teams across the Big N companies you’ll see a revolving door of people on visas keeping these things alive. The sad thing is that if we wanted a “meritocratic” system, we’d almost definitely see more of the same - whereas most right-wingers probably want fewer immigrants. I can promise you that any “points-based” overhaul in tech would result in huge amounts of immigration.
I honestly don’t know what the solution should be for America. Few other countries have tackled the problem, and bans basically result in industries falling apart and bans being lifted. A better solution would be to fast-track green cards for those that want them, and removing employment requirements on those currently in the country to allow them to leave and find more meaningful work - basically clear the queue and let people stay/leave on their terms.
Finally, a better long-term vision might be to align visas with specific countries that have a strategic partnership - having specific visas for Ireland, the UK, and other countries that have long been allies, and capping visas for other nations. Alongside this, increase cultural visas, so that those that do come aren’t there for work, but to support a known culture in the US.
A lot of the time H-1B employees are paid below industry average. So on one hand I get where he’s coming from
This guy is the epitome or raw definition of a POS.
The H1B visa is abused by companies to pay garbage wages and not hire local employees. It needs a safety net. If they can’t find someone local and need to fill that position with overseas work, so be it. But put a higher minimum wage on it. $25/hr minimum on foreign workers would get Americans jobs very quickly. And for the companies not abusing the visas and needing highly skilled labor, well $25/hr isn’t much and they’re already probably making more.
$25/hr (about $50k/yr) is nothing for the kind of professional/software jobs typical of H1Bs.
The rule should be that they have to pay ABOVE local going rate. Some percentage, like say, 25% above. It should be something of a last resort - hey, we couldn’t find anyone locally, really, we had to source this remotely.
At the same time, though, we should be finding ways to bump up numbers of those that want to come here to work and have full citizenship, and without being held to the whims of companies looking to treat workers like garbage and suppress salaries.
Indian right wing chuds are the worst kinds of chuds.
