Republican Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri took to social media in a fiery string of posts, calling the H-1B visa program an “economic betrayal” and a “national security nightmare,” targeting both Indian and Chinese applicants and demanding the program be shut down. The numbers, however, complicate his case.
USCIS data shows that in FY 2024, the department received 780,884 H-1B registrations and selected a total of 188,400 across two lottery rounds. By FY 2025, registrations had fallen to 470,342, a dramatic drop largely attributed to a new beneficiary-centric selection rule that eliminated duplicate entries, while 127,624 unique beneficiaries were ultimately selected. In simple terms, for every person who secures an H-1B slot, roughly three do not.
Yet the 85,000 annual cap, the number at the centre of the debate, covers only new visas. Renewals and exemptions push total annual approvals well past that figure. For instance, 386,100 petitions were approved in FY 2023 alone. These are not casual workers filling low-skill roles. Around 80% work in computer science, mathematics, or engineering, and nearly 70% hold a master’s degree or higher, fields where the United States has long struggled to produce enough domestic talent to meet demand.
H-1B fraud is a scam on American workers.
— Senator Eric Schmitt (@SenEricSchmitt) May 5, 2026
I just received the official USCIS FY2025 H-1B report. Over 406,348 approvals.
What I found is a flood of foreign labor. Sovereignty, security, and basic morality be damned. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/owkeiYPqrG
India remains the biggest source country
India plays the biggest role in the H-1B system. According to the USCIS data, in FY 2024, 283,397 Indian nationals were approved for H-1B visas. That is about 71% of all approvals. This pattern is not new. India has dominated for years:
- 72% of approvals in 2022
- 73.8% in 2021
- 74% in 2020
On the employer side, big Indian IT companies are major sponsors. American companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are also among the top employers.
Schmitt reacts to H-1B numbers, calls system unfair to American workers
Schmitt said he was shocked by the numbers and argued that the system is being misused in a way that hurts American workers. “While Washington pats themselves on the back, American workers are told to ‘upskill’ or get replaced by H-1B hires. The entire system is designed to let companies take advantage of the law. While American grads and workers pay the price,” he wrote, sharing parts of the report online. He also blamed big tech companies, saying they are encouraging this trend while laying off workers in the US.
Going further, Schmitt referred to comments made by former US foreign service officer Mahvash Siddiqui. He said an ex-visa officer in India had revealed several loopholes in the system.According to Schmitt, Siddiqui claimed that 70% to 90% of Indian applicants “gamed the system” using fake credentials. He also alleged that some Indian workers later hire others from their own networks while American workers lose jobs.
Schmitt also directed his criticism towards Chinese applicants in the H-1B system. He claimed that Chinese nationals are entering sensitive science and technology roles and that this could help the Chinese Communist Party access American intellectual property and carry out spying.
Netizens pushback
Not everyone agreed with Schmitt’s interpretation of the data. Immigration entrepreneur James Blunt responded by saying the overall numbers are actually much smaller when looked at in context of the US economy. He said the figures show a very different picture than what is being suggested.
“We went from ‘millions flooding in’ to ~400k approvals… with ~70% being renewals of people already here. That’s pretty low for a trillion dollar economy,” he wrote.
Blunt added that if arguments rely on exaggerated numbers, they lose strength. He also said the Indian approvals amount to roughly the size of a few high schools, and “not flooding the market.” He thanked Schmitt for sharing the data but said it actually weakens the alarmist narrative.
Do H-1B workers take American jobs?
This is one of the most sensitive questions in the debate. Research over the years does not give a simple answer, but most studies do not support the idea of large-scale job loss for Americans. Many studies show that high-skilled foreign workers do not push American workers out of jobs overall. In some cases, they actually support job growth in the same sectors.
According to the National Foundation for American Policy, covering data from 2005 to 2018, when the share of H-1B workers increased by 1% in an occupation, unemployment in that field actually went down. It also showed faster wage growth for American workers in those areas.
At the same time, there are concerns about wages. Employers must pay H-1B workers at least the “prevailing wage” for a job. But critics say this system can still allow companies to pay lower-than-market salaries in some cases, especially outsourcing firm