Ramaswamy wants to end H-1B visa system, says it's ‘indentured servitude’: Report

Ramaswamy’s company also hired through H-1B in the past

Updated: Sep 17th, 2023

Image: IANS

Calling the much sought-after H-1B visa system “indentured servitude”, Indian-American GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has pledged to get rid of it if voted to power in 2024, a media company reported.

Having himself used the system 29 times in the past to hire highly-skilled professionals for his pharma company, Ramaswamy said that the temporary worker visas system is ‘bad for everyone involved’, and the US needs to eliminate chain-based migration.

“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,” the media quoted the 38-year-old entrepreneur as saying.

“The people who come as family members are not the meritocratic immigrants who make skills-based contributions to this country,” Ramaswamy, born to immigrant parents from Kerala, added.

Ramaswamy’s company also hired through H-1B

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services approved 29 applications for Ramaswamy’s former company, Roivant Sciences, to hire employees under H-1B visas from 2018 through 2023, the report said.

“As the largest organisation of members currently on H1B visa stuck in green card backlogs, we completely agree with @VivekGRamaswamy & others willing to speak the truth: H1B visa is, in fact, indentured servitude that only benefits the company that sponsors the visa, but is bad for everyone else. We agree -- it is time to gut H1B,” US-based non-profit, Immigration Voice, wrote on X.  

Stating that Ramaswamy has grabbed headlines for his restrictionist immigration policy agenda, the media company said that “his rhetoric has at times gone farther than the other GOP candidates, as he calls for lottery-based visas, such as the H-1B worker visas, to be replaced with meritocratic admission”.

He has also said that he would deport US-born children of undocumented immigrants.

The H-1B visa of USA

The H-1B visa allows companies and other employers in the US to temporarily employ foreign workers in occupations that require the theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialised knowledge and a bachelor's degree or higher in the specific specialty, or its equivalent.

Every year the US gives 65,000 H-1B visas open to all and 20,000 to those with advanced US degrees.

Indians are the biggest beneficiaries of the H-1B visas getting about 75% of them, according to the US government.

In July 2023, Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi introduced legislation proposing to double the annual intake of foreign workers on H-1B visas from 65,000 to 1,30,000.

Earlier this year, bipartisan legislation was introduced in the US Senate to reform and close loopholes in the H-1B visa programme, created to complement America's high-skilled workforce.

(Source: IANS)

-Edited for style

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