A September poll of white-collar professionals shows that 56 percent of U.S. citizens say the huge H-1B visa-worker program is transferring their jobs and careers to white-collar migrants.
The poll of roughly 2,000 Americans and 2,200 foreign workers was conducted by Blind, which is a bulletin board for tech-sector professionals, most of whom are white-collar migrants.
The site reported 56 percent of the Americans polled said “they view H-1B visa holders as direct competitors for jobs.”
Sixty percent of U.S. citizens said that “U.S. citizens and green card holders should be given hiring priority.”
“I think the number is much higher,” responded Kevin Lynn, founder of U.S. Tech Workers, which lobbies against the H-1B and other outsourcing programs. If the American professionals were confident they would not face career retaliation, “I’d bet the number would be over 70 percent by this point,” he added.
The poll suggests that President Donald Trump could improve his support among white-collars workers by enforcing the nation’s civil rights, anti-discrimination, and employment laws in a sector that is skewed by ethnic hiring networks.
On September 19, Trump took a first step by setting modest curbs on the huge H-1B visa program, which keeps at least 730,000 foreign contract workers in U.S. white-collar jobs.
“The large-scale replacement of American workers through systemic abuse of the program has undermined both our economic and national security,” said the proclamation by Trump establishing modest curbs on the H-1B program:
The number of foreign STEM workers in the United States has more than doubled between 2000 and 2019, increasing from 1.2 million to almost 2.5 million, while overall STEM employment has only increased 44.5 percent during that time. Among computer and math occupations, the foreign share of the workforce grew from 17.7 percent in 2000 to 26.1 percent in 2019. And the key facilitator for this influx of foreign STEM labor has been the abuse of the H-1B visa.
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The abuse of the H-1B program is also a national security threat. Domestic law enforcement agencies have identified and investigated H-1B-reliant outsourcing companies for engaging in visa fraud, conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and other illicit activities to encourage foreign workers to come to the United States.
There is vast and growing evidence that Indian ethnic-hiring networks are excluding U.S. graduates from starter jobs and blocking U.S. professionals from promotions or management-track jobs.
American and foreign professionals “voiced sharply contrasting views,” the Blind site reported.
When asked if H-1B visa workers play a “crucial role” — although not an irreplaceable role — in business, the poll showed that “49 percent of U.S. citizens agreed with that statement, compared to 87 percent of foreign-born professionals.”
Migrant workers downplayed the hiring discrimination.
“Only 11 percent of H-1B holders and 35 percent of permanent residents agreed” that companies should tend to hire Americans.
Blind spotlighted one comment from the survey:
A [American] Microsoft employee wrote, “The H1B and other visa programs are out of control, and have become a way for the U.S. to hand its best jobs to foreigners. We have enough SWE [software engineering] graduates in the U.S. now that these programs can and should be scaled back SIGNIFICANTLY.”
Blind surveyed its platform between August 25 and September 3, 2025. A total of 4,230 verified professionals in the U.S., including H-1B holders, green card holders, and U.S. citizens, participated in the survey.
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