Because the USA isn't a "foreign country". Its my country.
1. We have a worker shortage.
2. Immigrants are the kinds of people who drive new businesses. They're innately calculated risk-takers, as they've already passed the gauntlet of "Leave everyone I know to live somewhere else", and on the average benefit our economy greatly.
3. Sending these people home not only is terrible for their lives, its terrible for the USA. We have these visa processes because we've all agreed its better for us _AND_ them for them to stay around.
4. I'm sure the Twitter H1B workers were productive before this asshole bought out the company. I don't think our visa system / H1B system was designed for this scenario.
One does not simply become a citizen, most have to convert from a work visa to a permanent visa (requires wait time + process), and then more wait time before being allowed to apply for citizenship. So there’s workers at twitter who can’t merely say “the boss is crazy, I’m out of here”. They have to line up another job and get their visa in order before they can go. No one is asking you to care or treat people differently, though people might judge you based on the thoroughness of your understanding & compassion for the situation.
Because a tech worker is highly skilled labor that would leave the country and therefore henceforth would not be available to the labor pool of said country, which arguably will have negative long term economic effects.
This problem occurs precisely because foreign tech workers are being treated differently. You are also glossing over the fact that those tech workers are on their path to become citizens.
Pay a lawyer $7-$14k, maintain residency on work visa for 7 years (for which you have to fight 5 other qualified candidates for a slot). Wait months for responses from an overwhelmed government service for each phase of an overly complicated process.
You’re right they shouldn’t be treated differently. Everyone should be treated better than that.
Do you know how long it takes to become a citizen?
I worked with a guy who came over to the US when he was just out of college. He went through the process as quickly as he could, and yet he was still in his late forties by the time he finally managed to become a citizen. A decade or two is not at all uncommon. And that's for in-high-demand professions where we desperately need to import that talent.
The "why can't you just" answer is almost always a big red flag that the speaker knows nothing about the actual problem or how hard it is to solve.
Should they be treated differently than everyone else?