H-1B visas appeared in the news this weekend when GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said the system needs to be replaced, according to media reports. 

Such visas are used to bring highly skilled workers, such as tech workers, to the US. The number of visas are capped and a lottery is held whenever the number of those seeking such visas is greater than the cap. 

“The lottery system needs to be replaced by actual meritocratic admission,” Ramaswamy said in a statement to Politico. “It’s a form of indentured servitude that only accrues to the benefit of the company that sponsored an H-1B immigrant. I’ll gut it.” 

Politico also reported that Ramaswamy’s own company used H-1B visas 29 times. Ramaswamy responded to that in a post on X (formerly Twitter): 

“@Politico tried to play ‘gotcha’ by saying I want to gut the H1-B system even though my companies have used it to hire foreign graduates from top US universities. Well, US energy sector regulations are badly broken, but I still use water & electricity. Turns out I actually understand the things I want to reform: the foreign visa ‘lottery’ is senseless & the H1-B regime is a form of indentured servitude that’s a product of corporate lobbying. I’ll finally fix it.” 

H-1Bs have come up politically previously this year. 

In July, a bill was introduced that would double the number of H-1B visas available to 130,000 from 65,000 today, although nothing has happened since then to the bill, HR 4647. 

But while the bill is designed to bring an increase in the number of needed tech workers, it’s unlikely to actually get passed, said Mark Roberts, CEO of the TechServe Alliance, an industry trade group for IT and engineering staffing firms in an interview with SIA for a separate story. Immigration is such a politically charged subject at this time that moving forward any legislation is unlikely, Roberts said. 

Contingent workforce buyers have also been relatively quiet about H-1Bs as of late. Dawn McCartney, VP of the contingent workforce strategies council, said discussions over H-1Bs have quieted down among buyers since the last election.