Yeah, I bet nobody saw this coming:
Walmart confirmed this week that it had paused hiring employees with H-1B visas in the wake of President Donald Trump’s reforms to the program.
“Walmart is committed to hiring and investing in the best talent to serve our customers, while remaining thoughtful about our H-1B hiring approach,” the company confirmed to multiple outlets.
I wonder why… oh yeah:
Trump imposed a $100,000 fee on H-1B applications in September, saying the program “created to bring temporary workers into the United States to perform additive, high-skilled functions, but it has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor.”
But fear not, Walmart:
Without an extension, the restriction will be lifted 12 months after the effective date of the proclamation, which is September 21, 2025.
…which means that Walmart will start re-importing their slave labor H-1B workers on September 22, 2026.
Anyone care to bet against this happening? No?
Gosh, such cynicism.
Any company is going to follow the law enough so that they don’t incur penalties and prison time as long as it is good for their profits.
I hope the fee on H1B visas gets expanded and extended.
It wasn’t just companies like Wal-Mart. The IT industry was flooded with low paid workers with questionable credentials and marginal skill sets. Yes, they had the certifications but just enough knowledge to pass the tests. The code they wrote functioned and did what was requested but it often needed to be “Tuned” to run efficiently. It lacked innovation and wider view of what it impacted at higer levels. In one case I changed the run time for a stored procedure from 8 hours to 12 minutes just by changeling the order that data was retrieved and processed.
Cheaper IT Labor, but was it really?
……. and department meeting were impossible ……. No one understood each other’s thick accents. In One department I had as co- workers a Pakistani, a dot Indian, a Japanese, a Russian, a Balkan and 2 other Americans. It’s a wonder they all didn’t stab each other. and yes….. it was a Quasi Governmental Agency.
My sister in law retired early from a career in IT at a large insurance firm. The other worlders that invaded her department over decades were quick to say yes to everything yet they delivered marginally functional programming or whatever. She had enough of their shoddy work, lying and stench so she retired early.
The entire immigration system needs to be reformed. The rejection rate for immigrants claiming to be refugees of some sort is somewhere around 95% failing to meet the criteria. The H1B visas should be hard to get with the corporations making a solid case why they cannot find a qualified American to fill the position.