> He said the program has created income inequality because the annual median income for Indian-American families was more than $150,000 in 2023, higher than the median income for other racial groups. Median household income for all Americans was $82,690 in 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
I love that the racists who attack the H1B program simultaneously complain that some racial groups earn more than their own white group, and also that the same racial groups are somehow just low cost labor meant to replace Americans. Their brains cannot acknowledge the most basic contradictions in their worldview.
Also the anti immigration “activist” this article casually mentions is absolutely deranged:
> Palasciano said he found it suspicious that there was a growing number of small businesses in Frisco owned by people of Indian origin employing Indian H-1B workers, especially in light of Paxton’s investigation.
> “There’s potential visa fraud here,” Palasciano said.
He literally sees a business employing nonwhites and thinks there is fraud. Textbook racist. His Twitter posts are even more unhinged and conspiratorial:
America isn't big enough for a huge number of immigrants from these other countries. I'm not opposed to foreigners, but we can't absorb the whole world population. Immigration also drives down wages...
I see your profile says you work in VC. Is the investment world also expanding to India? If not is this offshoring really a threat to America? Seems like the Bay Area still has the strongest network effects, even if it doesn’t make sense. So it seems like newer innovation would still happen there.
To a certain extent. For years now most founders in Cybersecurity, Enterprise SaaS, and DefenseTech in the US either have familial ties or immigrated from India, Israel, or CEE. Additionally, all the major VC funds have had India dedicated or Indian diaspora dedicated funds for almost 3 decades now.
Additonally, it's much easier to publicly list in India now that the IPO market is fixed, so we can move startups that aren't going to perform in the US to India where US$50M-$100M in revenue can justify an exit that is better than a PE buyout.
> Seems like the Bay Area still has the strongest network effects, even if it doesn’t make sense.
Absolutely. Hell, I live here too and it cannot be beat.
But founders and operators are largely either immigrants or the children of immigrants. Half of Bangalore and Tel Aviv is here right now raising capital, but all the core strategic roles (Product, Engineering) are increasingly only located in India, Israel, and CEE.
> is this offshoring really a threat to America
To America, no.
To Americans not working in a Tier 1 hub and aren't upskilling (ie. most losers on HN) absolutely.
Why pay $160K for Joe in Cary who's a bootcamp grad when I can hire Jamila who has an MSCS from UIUC and worked at Google MTV on an H1B and is now returning to Koramangla in order to work as a staff engineer for $90K?
That said, for American politicans services offshoring does not matter. It's a mostly blue voting industry with a vocal red minority largely living in a blue states or blue bubbles in red states. IC SWEs are not a vote bank for the GOP nor the DNC.
> He said the program has created income inequality because the annual median income for Indian-American families was more than $150,000 in 2023, higher than the median income for other racial groups. Median household income for all Americans was $82,690 in 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
I love that the racists who attack the H1B program simultaneously complain that some racial groups earn more than their own white group, and also that the same racial groups are somehow just low cost labor meant to replace Americans. Their brains cannot acknowledge the most basic contradictions in their worldview.
Also the anti immigration “activist” this article casually mentions is absolutely deranged:
> Palasciano said he found it suspicious that there was a growing number of small businesses in Frisco owned by people of Indian origin employing Indian H-1B workers, especially in light of Paxton’s investigation.
> “There’s potential visa fraud here,” Palasciano said.
He literally sees a business employing nonwhites and thinks there is fraud. Textbook racist. His Twitter posts are even more unhinged and conspiratorial:
https://xcancel.com/marc_palasciano
America isn't big enough for a huge number of immigrants from these other countries. I'm not opposed to foreigners, but we can't absorb the whole world population. Immigration also drives down wages...
Don't worry, we can leave [7] and take BigTech [0][1], Big Oil [2], and Wall Street [3][8] jobs with us.
Meanwhile, Trump has given Indian manufacturers very competitive trade terms [4] and is transferring semiconductor and REE IP to India [5][6].
[0] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-03/alphabet-...
[1] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-11/india-dra...
[2] - https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/big-oil-is-offshorin...
[3] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-11/trump-vis...
[4] - https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2026/02/unit...
[5] - https://x.com/USAmbIndia/status/2010718052992618815
[6] - https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/world/india-can-rival-chin...
[7] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-23/us-loses-...
[8] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-11-11/trump-s-h...
I see your profile says you work in VC. Is the investment world also expanding to India? If not is this offshoring really a threat to America? Seems like the Bay Area still has the strongest network effects, even if it doesn’t make sense. So it seems like newer innovation would still happen there.
> Is the investment world also expanding to India
To a certain extent. For years now most founders in Cybersecurity, Enterprise SaaS, and DefenseTech in the US either have familial ties or immigrated from India, Israel, or CEE. Additionally, all the major VC funds have had India dedicated or Indian diaspora dedicated funds for almost 3 decades now.
Additonally, it's much easier to publicly list in India now that the IPO market is fixed, so we can move startups that aren't going to perform in the US to India where US$50M-$100M in revenue can justify an exit that is better than a PE buyout.
> Seems like the Bay Area still has the strongest network effects, even if it doesn’t make sense.
Absolutely. Hell, I live here too and it cannot be beat.
But founders and operators are largely either immigrants or the children of immigrants. Half of Bangalore and Tel Aviv is here right now raising capital, but all the core strategic roles (Product, Engineering) are increasingly only located in India, Israel, and CEE.
> is this offshoring really a threat to America
To America, no.
To Americans not working in a Tier 1 hub and aren't upskilling (ie. most losers on HN) absolutely.
Why pay $160K for Joe in Cary who's a bootcamp grad when I can hire Jamila who has an MSCS from UIUC and worked at Google MTV on an H1B and is now returning to Koramangla in order to work as a staff engineer for $90K?
That said, for American politicans services offshoring does not matter. It's a mostly blue voting industry with a vocal red minority largely living in a blue states or blue bubbles in red states. IC SWEs are not a vote bank for the GOP nor the DNC.
[dead]