Lesser Talent People Can Still Get into America, Since Trump's H-1B Reform Is Riddled With Flaws

“John Lettieri's proposal to administer the H-1B program by merit is exactly right (Letters, Sept. 26). For years, critics have warned that the system isn't achieving its own goals. Instead of reliably bringing in the world's best talent to supercharge American innovation, it has often rewarded outsourcing firms that flood the lottery with petitions for midlevel workers who aren't meaningfully contributing to U.S. dynamism. Employers seeking to hire scarce, high-value talent frequently lose out or don't even try, given the low chances of winning the lottery.

 

The Trump administration's new reforms, a $100,000 petition fee and a wage-level weighted lottery, sound like real fixes.

 

In practice, they will backfire, helping the bad actors the administration says it wants to cut off.

 

The $100,000 fee is riddled with loopholes. The requirement doesn't apply to applicants already in the country on other visas.

 

Eighty percent of H-1Bs are awarded to people already present in the U.S., so most will simply avoid the fee. Those who can't will be hit hard, but there will still be an oversubscribed lottery.

 

Large outsourcing firms can use L-1 intracompany transfers to move workers in first, then flip them to H-1Bs without paying the fee. Far from deterring abuse, the policy will shift the pathway outsourcers use.

 

The new lottery scheme fares no better. By giving more "tickets" to petitions at higher Labor Department "wage levels," the administration claims it is favoring higher-skilled workers. But wage levels measure seniority within an occupation, not pay or economic value. That means a midcareer acupuncturist earning $40,000 can be certified by the Labor Department as a higher wage level than a new AI Ph.D. with a $280,000 starting salary.

 

The Institute for Progress's analysis shows the large outsourcing firms -- whose H-1Bs skew toward later-career placements -- would capture roughly 8% more visas under Mr. Trump's proposal. If the administration is serious about cutting them off, it can't treat all occupations as if they're worth the same. There shouldn't be scarce H-1B slots going to employers paying less than what the median American earns.

 

Jeremy Neufeld

 

Institute for Progress

 

Washington” [1]

 

1. Trump's H-1B Reform Is Riddled With Flaws. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 01 Oct 2025: A14.