Tech Companies Choosing H-1B Workers Over Unemployed American Citizens: DOJ Refuses to Help
The Dr. Josh C. Simmons ShowShow Notes
Discord has ~1,544 employees. ~500 of them are engineers. Over the last two years they sponsored 48 successful H-1B visas, almost all in engineering roles. That's roughly 10% of their engineering org on H-1B in the worst tech labor market since 2008.I filed a discrimination complaint with the DOJ. It's the fourth one I've filed. It's the fourth one they've refused to investigate, all signed by the same person out of Harmeet Dhillon's office.So I pulled the data myself. Here's what it actually shows, and here's my hypothesis for why the prosecutions aren't happening.⏱ Timestamps00:00 The fourth refusal letter02:01 Discord's actual headcount and engineering breakdown04:15 The H-1B role breakdown nobody talks about06:03 Why companies actually do this (I saw it at Amex)07:39 Where is Harmeet Dhillon12:12 My hypothesis: who's really calling the shots📬 Newsletter (where the uncensored version lives): https://newsletter.drjoshcsimmons.com/🐦 X: https://x.com/@drjoshcsimmons━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🧠 SPONSORSMagic Mind, the productivity shot I actually drink. 48% off subscriptions with code DRJOSH20:https://www.magicmind.com/DRJOSH20Proton, the encrypted email and VPN stack I moved to when I stopped trusting Google with everything:https://go.getproton.me/aff_c?offer_id=26&aff_id=16421&url_id=397Shwood Eyewear, the glasses I wear on camera. Handmade in Oregon:https://alnk.to/9bxCLdt━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Sources for this video are the public H-1B disclosure data from the Department of Labor, USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub, and headcount estimates from public company aggregators. All analysis was run against my own compiled database.#H1B #TechLayoffs #Discord
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This is Episode 3 of the audio omnibus: every public YouTube video from the week of Friday, October 9 through Thursday, October 15, 2026, stitched in publish order with a short spoken title card before each one.
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Your first job should pay you to learn. I talk about the advice I gave a young engineer, the skills worth developing as AI changes software work, and why a small company or your own business may offer a better path than the corporate ladder. Building something of your own is hard, and I explain the tradeoffs.00:00 Leave when you stop learning00:12 My first engineering job00:49 Optimize for learning01:23 Building with AI01:49 Start a business or join a small team03:30 Keep your skills and discipline04:00 Build with a purposeFull livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB1ZUaFzeUYNewsletter: https://newsletter.drjoshcsimmons.comAll links: https://drjoshcsimmons.com/linksEdited from the September 10, 2026 livestream.