Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee • Hacker News Board

Re: Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee

#31

Post by DANmode » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 12:56 AM UTC

cguess wrote: post #25

JCTheDenthog wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rigorous examinations for English fluency and for competency in their alleged field of expertise would be a good start. I have several H1B coworkers in the US who barely speak intelligible English, and who barely understand normal conversation let alone anything technical. A blatant example of this that I experienced recently being that several of them could not understand that just because a method in C# is asynchro…

This is a hiring issue, not a legal one. The US has no official language, and no language tests, so requiring English in law would be dicey to put it mildly. What if I'm hiring someone specifically to work at a Spanish language news outlet?

> This is a hiring issue, not a legal one.

When the law specifically dictates stuff like the talent of the person, I’m not convinced you’re correct.

Re: Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee

#32

Post by pton_xd » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 12:56 AM UTC

JCTheDenthog wrote: post #13

amazingamazing wrote: post #3

Why can’t Americans do these jobs?

They can, which is why many companies do the bare minimum malicious compliance to claim thet they attempted to hire Americans for these jobs. Things like ads in the local newspaper that 99% of qualified Americans will never see: https://www.newsweek.com/h1b-job-ads-green-cards-targeted-im...

Those newspaper tech job ads have been going on for at least the last... 20 years. When you see those, the company already has the role filled, they just need a justification for the visa. "We tried to find a US worker but failed!" Which honestly may or may not be true, I think the ad is just standard procedure at this point.

Re: Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee

#33

Post by panny » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 12:56 AM UTC

cguess wrote: post #25

JCTheDenthog wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rigorous examinations for English fluency and for competency in their alleged field of expertise would be a good start. I have several H1B coworkers in the US who barely speak intelligible English, and who barely understand normal conversation let alone anything technical. A blatant example of this that I experienced recently being that several of them could not understand that just because a method in C# is asynchro…

This is a hiring issue, not a legal one. The US has no official language, and no language tests, so requiring English in law would be dicey to put it mildly. What if I'm hiring someone specifically to work at a Spanish language news outlet?

[flagged]

Re: Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee

#34

Post by dboreham » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 12:57 AM UTC

amazingamazing wrote: post #3

Why can’t Americans do these jobs?

TFA is about teachers in Alaska. I'm guessing from a brief skim that no Americans want to be school teachers in Alaska for the money local school boards are offering.

This actually highlights two dumb things about the USA: prejudice against immigrants, and unwillingness to fund education.

Re: Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee

#35

Post by JCTheDenthog » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 12:57 AM UTC

cguess wrote: post #25

JCTheDenthog wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rigorous examinations for English fluency and for competency in their alleged field of expertise would be a good start. I have several H1B coworkers in the US who barely speak intelligible English, and who barely understand normal conversation let alone anything technical. A blatant example of this that I experienced recently being that several of them could not understand that just because a method in C# is asynchro…

This is a hiring issue, not a legal one. The US has no official language, and no language tests, so requiring English in law would be dicey to put it mildly. What if I'm hiring someone specifically to work at a Spanish language news outlet?

>What if I'm hiring someone specifically to work at a Spanish language news outlet?

Having actually worked at a Spanish language news outlet before (1 of 4 tv and radio stations in the office I was doing IT help desk work in), I can tell you that every single employee spoke English somewhere on the level of very good to near native fluency. As it turns out, knowing English (or the native language of whatever country you're in) is an incredible value-multiplier for almost every job position imaginable.

As far as language issues at my current job goes, it turns out once you hire a manager that speaks both Hindi and English (or Marathi and English, or Bengali and English, you get the picture) it doesn't matter much if the H1Bs he hires barely speak English because he can just start shouting at them in Hindi if they don't understand (even if several native English speakers are in the meeting too).

Re: Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee

#36

Post by epistasis » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 12:59 AM UTC

roarcher wrote: post #16

epistasis wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anti-immigration policy blocks them from being Americans. I know an awful lot of skilled people that live in the US, pay high taxes, and for whose lives have been thrown into disarray by backwards, anti-immigration policy like this illegal $100k fee, but it's just the beginning of the ways that anti-immigration policy is being used to make the US far weaker, just in order for pyrrhic harm to immigrants. I'm pissed ab…

> I know an awful lot of skilled people that live in the US If they already live in the US, they're not applying for an H1B.

That's false. You can apply for an H1B while in the US (unless there has been another recent and random change to long standing policy for no reason except to make lives miserable).

H1B renewals are also common, and happen within the US.

Re: Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee

#37

Post by free652 » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 12:59 AM UTC

panny wrote: post #33

cguess wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a hiring issue, not a legal one. The US has no official language, and no language tests, so requiring English in law would be dicey to put it mildly. What if I'm hiring someone specifically to work at a Spanish language news outlet?

[flagged]

I dont think an EO can do that, so at most just executive agencies. Meaning the 2 other branches can ignore it.

Re: Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee

#38

Post by bee_rider » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 1:01 AM UTC

panny wrote: post #33

cguess wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a hiring issue, not a legal one. The US has no official language, and no language tests, so requiring English in law would be dicey to put it mildly. What if I'm hiring someone specifically to work at a Spanish language news outlet?

[flagged]

That’s just an Executive Order. Executive Orders are instructions to the executive branch, not the country itself (obviously, the president doesn’t have that ability). Congress hasn’t passed a law establishing an official language in the US.

Re: Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee

#39

Post by epistasis » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 1:02 AM UTC

JCTheDenthog wrote: post #14

epistasis wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anti-immigration policy blocks them from being Americans. I know an awful lot of skilled people that live in the US, pay high taxes, and for whose lives have been thrown into disarray by backwards, anti-immigration policy like this illegal $100k fee, but it's just the beginning of the ways that anti-immigration policy is being used to make the US far weaker, just in order for pyrrhic harm to immigrants. I'm pissed ab…

>Anti-immigration policy blocks them from being Americans. Yes, because the citizens of a country (through their elected representatives) have absolute control over who they choose to allow into their country. Even blocking a brilliant surgeon or inventor, if they so choose. There is no moral right to come to America (or any other country).

Saying "I have absolute control" is not a justification for making bad decisions that hurt the US. Furthermore, it was never a question of the US had a right to make these decisions, of course it does.

Do you find the argument "I have the right to make any decision I want therefor it justifies bad decisions" convincing? I sure don't.

Re: Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee

#40

Post by naturalmovement » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 1:02 AM UTC

cguess wrote: post #25

JCTheDenthog wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rigorous examinations for English fluency and for competency in their alleged field of expertise would be a good start. I have several H1B coworkers in the US who barely speak intelligible English, and who barely understand normal conversation let alone anything technical. A blatant example of this that I experienced recently being that several of them could not understand that just because a method in C# is asynchro…

This is a hiring issue, not a legal one. The US has no official language, and no language tests, so requiring English in law would be dicey to put it mildly. What if I'm hiring someone specifically to work at a Spanish language news outlet?

EO 14224 designates English as the official language of the US.