THE INDIAN HAND THAT BUILTSILICON VALLEY WON’T STAYCHAINED WHEN WASHINGTONSTRIKES WITH THE $100,000 BLOWNO

America’s $100,000 H-1B Shock: Indians Refuse to Stay Silent

By C SUBRAHMANYAM
Hyderabad | September 21, 2025

A SLEDGEHAMMER TO THE BACKBONE

America is shooting itself in the foot. Skilled Indian immigrants — the very people who keep Silicon Valley buzzing and Wall Street humming — are now being slapped with a back-breaking $100,000 fee per H-1B visa.

This is no mere bureaucratic tweak. This is a sledgehammer blow to the backbone of America’s economy.

Let’s call out the truth:

Indian H-1Bs contribute hundreds of billions in taxes, as economist David J. Bier has shown.
The National Academies of Sciences itself declared that skilled immigration pumps up GDP by 0.3–0.4% every year.

Yet, Trump’s executive order bulldozes past hard data in favour of raw political theatre.

A QUESTION OF HISTORY, A LESSON OF PSYCHOLOGY

Some voices whisper that Indians abroad “remain submissive” — blaming 1,000 years of oppression, as if genetics carry servitude.

Hard truth: there is no gene for obedience.

What exists is izzat, the crushing weight of family honour and social conformity that shackled Indian society for centuries.

But let’s be clear — modern sociology (Varma, 2010) proves this is learned behaviour, not bloodline destiny.

And if history shows anything, it is that Indians adapt, innovate, and rise when the chains are broken.

And today, they are breaking those chains.
The age of silence is over. Indians abroad are no longer submissive, no longer silent.

VOICES FROM HYDERABAD’S TECH CORRIDORS

IT Expert Balaraman: “For decades, we worked 14-hour days, silently building America’s software skeleton. We thought loyalty would speak for itself. But silence was mistaken for weakness. Not anymore.”
IT Expert Chaturvedi: “They called us submissive because we didn’t shout. But building empires brick by brick was never submission — it was strength. Now, we’ll shout if we must.”
IT Expert Makheeja: “$100,000 for a visa? That’s not a fee, that’s a ransom. And when you ransom talent, you ransom your own future. Washington will learn it the hard way.”
IT Expert Roshni: “Our fathers kept their heads down. We won’t. We choose where we build, and we decide where we lead. We are not submissive, and we are not silent. We are the ones who power the future — with or without America.”
IT Expert MediShah: “America thinks it holds the remote control. But the truth is simple — pull out Indian talent, and the tech towers will flicker like a power cut in peak summer Hyderabad.”

THE GHOST OF UGANDA, 1972

History has a cruel way of repeating itself.

In 1972, Idi Amin expelled 70,000–80,000 Indians from Uganda. Within months, the economy collapsed — GDP fell by 5% (World Bank data).

Amin’s chest-thumping nationalism became Uganda’s economic funeral march.

Today, America risks scripting its own replay.

Mass ouster of productive immigrants will not weaken Indians — it will weaken America.

Tech firms will bleed talent.
Innovation will dry up.
The so-called “protection” will be America’s own undoing.

THE HARSH VERDICT

This is not immigration reform. This is economic vandalism dressed up as patriotism.

Indians built America’s tech towers brick by brick. To throw them out now is to pull down the very scaffolding holding up the U.S. economy.

History warns. Data screams. Logic pleads.
But politics, it seems, has stuffed its ears.