In December 2024, Vivek Ramaswamy made headlines for all the wrong reasons. On X, Ramaswamy openly declared that “the reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over ‘native’ Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit. … A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture.”
He doubled down by mocking what he called a U.S. “culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ” and warning that “normalcy doesn’t cut it in a hyper-competitive global market for technical talent.”
The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if…
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 26, 2024
These remarks were not just tone-deaf, they echoed a false, discriminatory narrative that has circulated for years: that America’s graduates are unworthy and that corporations are justified in overlooking them for cheaper foreign labor. Ramaswamy’s comments mirror the same tired excuse that has been used to erode fair hiring, perpetuate the abuse of visa loopholes and normalize the harsh reality young Americans now face, being massively locked out of jobs in their own country.
Hiring foreign labor on the basis of “culture” or any similar excuse isn’t just wrong: It’s illegal.
Under the Immigration Nationality Act, visas for the temporary employment of foreign workers in the United States are supposed to be issued only when no qualified American workers are available. While some visas bypass labor protections altogether, a majority ultimately flow into the H-1B visa and the PERM labor certification pipeline, with PERM serving as the first step toward granting foreign workers permanent residency through a green card. The result is that by the time Americans are supposed to be considered, they’ve already been shut out of the process.
Manufactured myths to justify exploitation
Those who profit from exploiting America’s immigration system have mastered the art of manufacturing false narratives and polished reports designed to deceive the public.
The truth is that these visa programs have been systematically used to undercut U.S. wages, which in turn have served as a vehicle to accelerate offshoring and inflict lasting damage on America’s workforce, including American graduates unknowingly entering a rigged job market.
For years these myths went largely unchallenged. But dismantling the lies and propaganda with hard evidence is the only way to restore fairness and ensure Americans are prioritized in their own country.
One of the most persistent deceptions is the claim that the United States is importing only the “best and brightest.” A recent piece in the Indian Express, “Beyond the H-1B: Alternative pathways for Indian students to build a career in U.S.,” illustrates this spin perfectly, immediately framing Indian students as Ivy League-level recruits. Yet the numbers show the opposite, causing this narrative to collapse under scrutiny.
‘Best and brightest’: The Ivy League myth vs. reality
The Indian Express paints a picture of Indian students chasing world-class education at Harvard, MIT, Yale and Stanford. But the facts tell a different story. According to the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), in 2024 only 0.79% of F-1 visa students went to Harvard, 0.42% to MIT, 0.45% to Yale and 0.53% to Stanford. Combined, those four schools enrolled just 2.18% of all active F-1 students, and that figure includes all international students, not just Indians.
While the narrative suggests Indian students primarily come for elite universities, the overwhelming majority are not in the Ivy League at all. Instead, they cluster in public universities and STEM programs at state schools. SEVIS records show that in 2024 there were 422,335 Indian students in the U.S., up from 331,602 in 2023, a surge of more than 90,000 students in a single year, representing a 27% increase. By inflating the “prestige” angle, outlets like the Indian Express distract from the actual scale and purpose of this pipeline: a mass labor funnel sold as elite education, importing not the “best and brightest,” but the cheapest and most controllable.
F-1 to H-1B: A backdoor to employment
1B Work Visa Are One in Fifteen
“The H-1B visa is one of the most in-demand US work visas. It gives American companies access to global talent and offers international professionals a chance to work in the United States. Each year, thousands of Indian students travel to the US in pursuit of world-class education and global career opportunities.”
Even in promotional language like this, the truth slips out: The real goal for many Indian students is not education, but a permanent career in America through the H-1B. That intent, however, is not consistent with the student visa system.
The F-1 Visa is a non-immigrant visa meant solely for temporary study. Turning it into a job pipeline through Optional Practical Training (OPT) and later H-1B sponsorship distorts the law’s purpose. Applicants are required to show they have no intent to immigrate and no plans to remain beyond their program. When students enter with the pre-conceived goal of securing U.S. employment, that is misrepresentation and under U.S. law it is visa fraud, rendering both the applicant and any enabling institution legally liable.
Yet Indian media, universities and lobbyists openly acknowledge this is exactly what’s happening. The F-1 has become less a student visa than a backdoor work permit, a stepping stone to long-term residency.
Whether U.S. regulators acknowledge it or not, the numbers speak for themselves. In 2024, Indian nationals accounted for about 83.2% of all foreign students approved for STEM OPT. That same year, international students represented 71% of H-1B approved beneficiaries, roughly 283,570 visas.
Indian nationals also made up 71% of all approved H-1B petitions in 2024, with 283,397 visas issued to India out of the 399,395 total. In other words, nearly 3 out of every 4 H-1B visas went to Indian workers. The second-largest recipient, China, accounted for only 46,780 approvals, a massive gap that highlights just how disproportionately the program has been captured by India compared to all other countries combined.
The I-140, or Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, is the form U.S. employers file to sponsor foreign nationals for permanent residency under employment-based green cards. The latest data shows just how disproportionate India’s role has become in this process. Of the 1,481,069 I-140 petitions filed across all countries, India alone accounted for 644,819, nearly 44%. In the EB-2 category, the most common path used by H-1B workers, the disparity is even starker, with India accounting for 414,653 of the 752,283 total filings, over 55%.
India’s media, policy advocates and even award programs openly celebrate U.S. universities whose international alumni secure green cards, signaling the true intent behind the education-to-employment pipeline.
By their own framing, the system is not about learning, it is about staying. And that, by definition, legally constitutes visa fraud.
Critics may dismiss such statements as words taken out of context, but the actual numbers cannot be spun. From the overwhelming dominance of Indian nationals in STEM OPT (83.2%), to their capture of nearly three out of four H-1B visas, to India’s outsized share of employment-based green card petitions, the evidence reveals a deliberate funnel from F-1 to H-1B to PERM.
America’s regulators may overlook the rhetoric, but the hard data makes the case undeniable.
Why employers prefer OPT over Americans
OPT and STEM OPT are not harmless “training programs.” They are American-taxpayer-subsidized work visas that give employers a financial incentive to bypass Americans. Companies don’t pay payroll taxes on OPT workers and there are no prevailing wage rules.
In other words, Indian students can legally be hired at a discount.
The STEM OPT program extends this discount window for up to three years, making it even more attractive to businesses seeking long-term savings. Beyond wages and taxes, OPT workers are also tied to their visa status, giving employers leverage and discouraging turnover or demands for better pay.
These loopholes create a structural bias against American graduates. While Americans compete for jobs with student loans and rising living costs, employers see OPT and STEM OPT workers as a cheaper, more controllable labor pool. This isn’t about skill shortages; it’s about a system that makes foreign labor artificially less expensive than hiring U.S. citizens.
America’s universities: A backdoor to U.S. jobs
Every year, hundreds of thousands of Indian students attend U.S. schools, not for the diploma, but for the work permit it unlocks. Universities welcome the tuition dollars, corporations welcome the cheap labor – and policymakers continue to look away.
The cost is borne by American graduates. They leave school burdened by debt, only to enter a job market rigged against them by design. Decades of policy failures have created a two-tier system that subsidizes foreign labor while penalizing U.S. citizens.
This is not simply an immigration matter. It is an economic issue, a fairness issue and a sovereignty issue. The F-1 to OPT to H-1B to green card pipeline is not a loophole, but a deliberately constructed architecture, built to serve universities, corporations and foreign governments while stripping Americans of opportunity in their own country.
The numbers prove it. The rhetoric confirms it. And the damage is visible in every layoff, every stagnant wage and every American graduate told he or she is somehow not “competitive” in the nation their families built.
The system is not broken; it is working exactly as designed – overwhelmingly against Americans. Until the pipeline is dismantled and the laws protecting U.S. workers are enforced without exception, the hollowing out of America’s workforce will continue.
The choice now falls to the American people: Accept decline, or fight to reclaim a labor market that belongs to them.