Silicon Valley companies dislike the immigration policies proposed by Donald Trump. The main opponents are the IT executives from India. They even came to Capitol Hill to speak about a key issue for them, the H1-B visa. Indian companies in US import a lot of IT specialists every year.
Infosys, Tata Consultancy, Wipro, Tech Mahindra and HCL Technologies are the top Indian firms depending on foreign workers. Forbes reports that half of the top 10 companies that petition for the 85,000 H1-B visas every year are Indian. The H-1B visa was created by The Immigration Act of 1990.
There was just one H-1 category for skilled workers in the past, which was uncapped and had no labor restrictions. The 1990 act imposed a limit and required that H-1Bs be paid the prevailing wage. In theory, US companies would not hire foreign workers if they were going to make as much as American workers.
Facts about Information Technology in US
Statistics show that 70.9% of all applicants for the H1-B visa were from India in 2015. China was next, with 9.7% and Canada got just 1.3% which was a far third place. Indian IT companies in US believe that Trump will ban them from importing workers. In 2015, the average salary of an H1-B holder was $77,000. Some politicians wants to see the salary increased to $130,000 to eliminate the abuses blamed on the Indians for bringing in lower cost engineers. The average income in Santa Clara is $93,500 while the average home price is over $1 million.
The number of H-1Bs issued annually is capped at 85,000 which means that when the US economy grows, these H-1B slots fill up immediately. Silicon Valley wants more vacancies to feed its tech industry. India has become a key player in Silicon Valley. Last year, more than 300,000 applications were sent to USCIS. Trump is unlikely to increase the numbers because of his closed immigration policies.
