I work in IT, and am close friends with two IT workers — one from India, and another whose parents are from India. The people from Indian culture are among my favorites — their culture is one of respect and deep thinking.

The H1B visa issue is not about individuals. It is about policy. I am a consultant, and so I see a-lot of companies, and everywhere I go — whether it is middle America or a tech hub — the IT departments of companies are a sea of people from India. They are hired to reduce cost. It is true that companies pay them less.

They are indeed in a precarious position. I find that they do not speak up against management, yet that is often needed today, since organizations need to change how they work, to adopt more modern methods. I am not sure if it is a cultural issue or the H1B situation, but people from India generally will not disagree with their manager or supervisor.

We should remember the purpose of the H1B visa program: to bring specialized expertise that cannot be obtained here. Yet that is not how it is used in IT: it is used entirely to bring in low cost staff.

The claim that there are not enough US people to fill the jobs is incorrect. US students and workers will learn IT skills if the pay is sufficient. It takes awhile, but things would adjust. It is true, pay might have to increase. The point that these people already make six figures fails to take into account that (1) it is a highly skilled job, and (2) the jobs are usually in tech hubs, where the cost of living is two or three times what it is in middle America. Try buying a tiny house in San Jose for under a million dollars.

Draining vast numbers of people from a country to bring them here for the benefit of tech companies is also a disservice to the origin country. They need to build their own industry — as India is doing. They need to create their own Googles, to get a piece of the global pie. If their most skilled people all come here, that will not happen.