Now here in the United States we have a problem with importing things from around the world that we are completely capable of providing for ourselves and typically these things come from countries with a lower cost of living, lower labor costs, and less environmental regulations, and these imports also include people via the H-1B visa program. (For those curious, as of June of 2025 the U.S. trade deficit for the year was $78.3 billion)
Let’s start with what is an H-1B visa (from Wikipedia):
“The H-1B is a classification of non-immigrant visa in the United States that allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations, as well as fashion models, or persons who are engaged in Department of Defense projects who meet certain conditions. The regulation and implementation of visa programs are carried out by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), an agency within the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Foreign nationals may have H-1B status while present in the United States, and may or may not have a physical H-1B visa stamp.”
From FWD.us we learn the following:
65% of holders are for computer related jobs such as engineers and analysts
48% are scientific, professional, and technical services–there must be an overlap of those stats otherwise the math isn’t working here
The average H-1B wage is $118,000
FWD estimates there are 730,000 H-1B holders plus dependents currently in the United States (U.S.)
Now let’s look at some more stats
According to End Homelessness:
The current estimate of the U.S. homeless population is 771,480
According to Duck Duck Go’s research assistant a bachelor's in computer science including housing costs at UC Berkeley is $51,904
So, if 68% of our H1B visas are in computer fields and we are importing 730,000 people while having a homeless population of 771,480 why are we importing people when in four years we could come very close to ending the homeless epidemic? For $9,472,480,000 a year for four years we could move most of the homeless to stable high paying jobs. Yes $10 billion a year is a lot of cash but if you really dig into the federal budget it’s sort of a drop in the bucket. We could also save some money just from the fact that not all homeless people will want to be in the tech fields and may prefer vocational training instead or may already have degrees but circumstances pushed them on a different path.
Most homeless people are in their situation because of a lack of affordable housing and there is no easy solution to that problem, but we do have the ability to move them to employment positions where they can afford housing. Yes there are other costs I have not factored in here such as: Mental healthcare and drug and alcohol rehabilitation that is so rampant in our homeless population–anything to escape the soul crushing moment they are in no matter how briefly.
To me it is a failure of our society to import talent when we have more than enough people already here that just need some training and a chance. It is a double failure when we add in that according to DAV.org 32,882 of those homeless in 2024 are veterans, people who put their lives on the line and when their enlistment ended now have no home, while living amongst those they swore to protect.
A U.S. National Institute of Health study concluded that overall the homeless population has a 67% mental health issue rate and that includes substance use disorders (44%)
According to research by Arizona State University:
“A study done by the Morrison Institute for Public Policy has, for the first time, quantified the cost savings at about $21,000 per year for each chronically mentally ill person who has stable housing and support services, breaking the expensive cycle of emergency room visits, police interactions and incarceration.”
If we use the $21,000 per mentally ill person times 67% of our homeless population we actually save our economy $10,854,723,600 so we actually save $854,723,600 a year by retraining our homeless population to fill the jobs we are currently importing people for and by extrapolation making our homeless problem worse. We also move children of homeless people off the street or out of the foster care system, the children benefit from having a stable childhood, being able to get the healthcare they need and society benefits from the cycle of homelessness and addiction breaking.
How many resources do we as a nation consume vetting each H-1B applicant and the families they bring with them? How many more resources are consumed by monitoring them? How many resources are consumed tracking them down if they overstay their visa? Would we not be better served by investing those resources in our own citizens who are already here and in need?
So many are consumed by illegal immigrants, but as much as we need to stem that flow we also need to look at our own internal resources before we look elsewhere to import what we potentially have right here already.
“The measure of society is how it treats the weakest members”
― Thomas Jefferson
