During a visit to the US, Indian Prime Minister Modi expressed the hope that legal pathways to work in the US will remain open for Indians. The call came after the Trump administration deported several Indian nationals.
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00:00We cannot afford to lose a job.
00:04And do you feel it like a pressure on you?
00:07It's a goddamn pressure, it's a really fearful thing.
00:13So we better be in a place where we're not happy, but secured.
00:17A S who asks that we not use his full name is a firmware engineer at a Silicon Valley
00:23startup.
00:24He asked us to conceal his identity out of concern that publicly commenting on immigration
00:30issues may affect him and his ability to work in the United States.
00:35Could there be new policies saying, OK, now H-1B will be really hard to get, or people
00:40on H-1B from past six years can no longer work here?
00:45Could these policies come from Trump?
00:48That will be really scary.
00:49More than 70% of the temporary H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers in the U.S. go
00:54to Indian nationals.
00:56And they are the ones that stand to be most affected as a wider debate on the future of
01:00skilled labor rages on, with some Trump allies wanting more restricted immigration, while
01:07Trump himself has flip-flopped from opposition to support of the H-1B visa program.
01:13But the program itself has been the target of harsh criticism.
01:18Silicon Valley strives on global talent, but also has a dark secret.
01:23Here for many hiring H-1B visa workers, it's not about skills, it's about money and control.
01:31Many who study labor issues, like Ron Hera, argue that the H-1B visa is misused.
01:38They don't control their own work permit and their ability to stay in the U.S.
01:42It's dependent on their employer.
01:44What that does is it gives the employer a lot of power over that worker.
01:48This employer says he no longer hires H-1B visa holders.
01:52Vivek Vadva, a CEO of a Silicon Valley life science company, also says the system is flawed.
02:00If you're now running a big technology company, you would rather have more stable employees
02:05who can't leave, who get lower salaries, than have people who are going to just jump ship
02:11like the rest of the employees do.
02:14But the system has also produced stars at the top of their fields, tech leaders like
02:19Sundar Pichai from Google or Satya Nadella from Microsoft.
02:23So many, like Vivek, argue that changing the system should not be about allowing fewer
02:29qualified people to come to the U.S.
02:31Rather, those who do come should have easier pathways to green cards, so they can live
02:37and work here permanently.
02:39But few can predict how likely that is.
02:42You have this battle between the anti-immigrants and the Silicon Valley crowd.
02:49And who will Donald Trump listen to?
02:51God knows.
02:52It depends on what day of the week it is and what his mood is.
02:55We don't know.
02:56So this is why I can't predict what they're going to do with H-1B policy, with green cards
03:01or immigration policy in particular.
03:03It is this kind of uncertainty that AS is trying to manage.
03:07He's eligible for a green card, but the backlog for processing applications is in
03:13the millions, with the waiting time counted in decades.
03:18This is actually very demeaning.
03:20If you check your status to get a green card, it shows 108 years.
03:25Despite his worries, AS says he hopes he can stay in the U.S. and contribute to its culture
03:31of innovation, as long as the system lets him.
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