H1-B Visa Debate Relevant in Tallahassee

Last month, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy ignited a national debate with their support for the H1-B visa program, which they claim is critical to driving U.S. innovation and industry forward. While Silicon Valley employs the majority of H1-B workers, they can be found throughout the country—the state of Florida is top ten in the nation for their use of H1-B visa workers.

Ramaswamy alleged fundamental issues within the U.S. workforce. Musk, who uses the H1-B program to hire workers for Tesla, argued that “if you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be.” With the tech industry poised to play a key role in rebuilding the economy, Musk and others claim that accomplishing this means recruiting the best and the brightest.

Critics of the H1-B visas accuse the program and its proponents of taking jobs away from Americans by incentivizing companies to hire cheap overseas labor. Increasing H1-B visas would mean taking more jobs away from American workers. Former Senator Nikki Haley responded to Musk: “Invest in our American workforce. We must invest in Americans first before looking elsewhere.” And Laura Loomer, a far[1]right MAGA influencer, even claimed that the visas were being given to “third-world invaders from India.”

President Donald Trump issued a statement endorsing Musk’s position on H1-B visas—a program he previously spoke out against.

The state of Florida ranks tenth in the nation in the use of H1-B visa workers with 14,093 visas given out. The average annual salary for those workers is $111,233. The total for 2024 was 17,344 H1-B visas, who had an average annual salary of $111,830. Tallahassee accounted for 443 of those visas with an average annual salary of $89,893.

Florida’s public universities are among the highest users of H1-B visas in the state. In 2023, the University of Flori[1]da topped the charts with 252 visas followed by the Univer[1]sity of Miami, who took 116. Florida State University took 88 visas, while Florida A&M accounted for 9.

If an H1-B visa-holder is looking for work, they typically use a sponsor company as a go-between. One such lo[1]cal example is Kyra Solutions, who connects workers with government entities. State departments like DOE or FDOT will post job applications and a recruiting company, like Kyra Solutions, will bid on the contracts. If they win, then they can connect one of their H1-B visa workers with the State for an interview. This is a common practice throughout the country.

One big criticism of the H1-B visa program is that it offers foreign labor as a cheap alternative to hiring Ameri[1]can workers. A recruiting company like Kyra, among others, may charge the State $100+ an hour for their H1-B talent and only pay their workers $15-30 an hour. The difference is pure profit for Kyra Solutions. In some instances, these sponsor companies will invest the surplus money into housing for their workers.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has come out strongly against the visas. “We’ve seen how companies will bring in H-1B [workers], the Americans train the H-1B [workers], and then they fire the Americans and hire the H-1B,” said DeSantis. “How would that even remotely be acceptable?”

If DeSantis is truly concerned about the use of H1-B visas, he could start by examining their impact in the capital of his own state.