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Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee

alaskasnewssource.com

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Re: Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee

#141

Post by esalman »

anon-3988 wrote: post #137
esalman wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear this argument all the time. There's an excess of this, there's an excess of that. Seems it only comes from people who are not directly involved in hiring of such roles. We hired for an analyst role few months ago in the bay area and there was no qualified American applicants. My wife is in pavement consultancy and they hardly ever find qualified Americans for pavement design jobs.

Does your wife's consultancy business have a growing number of clients to handle? It might also be an issue of distribution.

No such issues. It's actually not a solo business, it's a civil/geological engineering consultancy firm with a mix of state/local government and private clients.

Re: Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee

#142

Post by nsagent »

throwaway85825 wrote: post #103
janalsncm wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there an excess of teachers in Alaska? I can understand why rural schools would need H1Bs. They would probably need to pay a premium to attract teachers from out of state, not to mention Alaska. And rural schools are the least able to actually do that. Maybe if the current admin really wants to keep the $100k fee, they can extend an olive branch by either waiving the fee or helping to fund American teachers to mov…

There's as many teachers in Alaska as they're willing to pay for.

Having lived in bumblefuck Alaska for a year, I can honestly say that they do in fact pay more, but it's also super expensive to live in rural Alaska.

Likely a bigger issue is that very few people want to live in a town of 3000 people or less that isn't connected to the interstate road system. Money can only do so much to fix that.

Re: Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee

#143

Post by Brybry »

Analemma_ wrote: post #95
culopatin wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And who pays that extra? Who are you taxing in the middle of nowhere?

The Alaska Permanent Fund from their oil revenue is worth $90 billion and they send every resident an annual $1,000 check on top of heavily subsidized fuel. I think they can pay competitive teacher salaries.

Alaska is already in the top 8 median elementary school teacher salaries nationally, with ~$79,260 in 2025 compared to 2024 national median of $62,310 (couldn't find 2025). They were #2 and #3 in education spending as a percent of state GDP in 2024 and 2025. [1][2][3]

It would need to be more than just competitive, it would probably need to be doctor-tier "I'm giving up my life plans for this salary in Alaska" level (which is what I assume it's like for foreign labor).

It's possible they can afford it. I would think they would need to double or more their education spending (~$2.77 billion (24/25), ~45% -> wages) state wide which would be most of what the Alaska Permanent Fund pays out per year ($3-4 billion) [4][5]

I imagine it would be politically very unpopular for obvious reasons.

[1] https://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/kinde...

[2] https://data.bls.gov/oesprofile/?major_group=250000&occupati... (increase records to see Alaska)

[3] https://www.schoolfinancedata.org/annual-reports/2024

https://www.schoolfinancedata.org/annual-reports/2025

[4] https://alaskapolicyforum.org/2025/06/alaskas-schools-are-ro...

[5] https://apfc.org/the-fund/fund-structure/

Re: Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee

#144

Post by bijowo1676 »

throwaway85825 wrote: post #140
bijowo1676 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

have you considered asking DOL (staffed by White Americans) and Congress (staffed by White Americans) why they have that requirement, instead of blaming foreigners ?

Why do you assume everyone who works for the government is white?

I'm not assuming, I am speaking from knowledge. Congress has always been mostly white, as do DOL leaders, this is especially true for current administration

Re: Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee

#145

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft »

bijowo1676 wrote: post #131
jojobas wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Teachers were like 4% of all H1Bs. Using CS/AI H1B proceeds to increase pay to rural teachers more seems like a no-brainer. The current Alaskan teacher pay seems to be below median, which seems like an good threshold to disallow H1B workers altogether.

Have you considered the possibility that H1B teachers are simply better (at any price point) ? H1B proceeds go to fund USCIS and its staff, they do not go towards local school districts. This whole discussion is full of racists and haters who dont know anything about the subject beyond clickbait titles

>Have you considered the possibility that H1B teachers are simply better (at any price point) ?

That sounds sort of racist, actually.

Re: Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee

#146

Post by throwaway85825 »

nsagent wrote: post #142
throwaway85825 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's as many teachers in Alaska as they're willing to pay for.

Having lived in bumblefuck Alaska for a year, I can honestly say that they do in fact pay more, but it's also super expensive to live in rural Alaska. Likely a bigger issue is that very few people want to live in a town of 3000 people or less that isn't connected to the interstate road system. Money can only do so much to fix that.

Some people live in a pressurized bubble for a month for saturation diving. If the price is right you can get someone to do almost anything.

Re: Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee

#147

Post by bijowo1676 »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #145
bijowo1676 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered the possibility that H1B teachers are simply better (at any price point) ? H1B proceeds go to fund USCIS and its staff, they do not go towards local school districts. This whole discussion is full of racists and haters who dont know anything about the subject beyond clickbait titles

>Have you considered the possibility that H1B teachers are simply better (at any price point) ? That sounds sort of racist, actually.

It is not racist, but it is true. The Education major is one of the bottom majors, Americans with the lowest grades and lowest SAT scores go on to become public school teachers. and it is well known information among Americans themselves.

https://x.com/marcportermagee/status/1954326425072546055/pho...

https://reports.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/2023-total-group-...

  The average SAT for Education majors: 1023
  It’s ranked 24th, behind Communications (19th), Library Science (13th), and English (11th). The top major: Math.
while foreigners on H1B are top percentile in academic performance and scoring and generally H1B attract top 1% talent from the global talent pool, especially given there are only like 60k visas issued per year.

People who look at the stats objectively should be the first ones to advocate for more H1B teachers, if that meant children would get dramatically better education

Re: Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee

#148

Post by albert_e »

apt-apt-apt-apt wrote: post #82

Misleading title, implies national but only for one state

There was a ruling in Boston also, reported separately.

> U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston issued the ruling in a lawsuit filed by 20 Democratic state attorneys general challenging a fee Trump announced in September

https://www.reuters.com/world/trumps-100000-h-1b-visa-fee-is...

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/08/politics/federal-judge-vo...

Re: Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee

#149

Post by throwaway85825 »

bijowo1676 wrote: post #144
throwaway85825 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you assume everyone who works for the government is white?

I'm not assuming, I am speaking from knowledge. Congress has always been mostly white, as do DOL leaders, this is especially true for current administration

So your position is that it's 'white people's fault'?

Re: Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee

#150

Post by s1artibartfast »

throwaway85825 wrote: post #103
janalsncm wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there an excess of teachers in Alaska? I can understand why rural schools would need H1Bs. They would probably need to pay a premium to attract teachers from out of state, not to mention Alaska. And rural schools are the least able to actually do that. Maybe if the current admin really wants to keep the $100k fee, they can extend an olive branch by either waiving the fee or helping to fund American teachers to mov…

There's as many teachers in Alaska as they're willing to pay for.

Yes, there is supply and demand. However, that doesnt mean a government cant restrict supply.
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