The reason why is the drafters of immigration law care a lot about US employers (as they are voters, donors and have a big lobby). US employers want to control the green card process so that they have leverage over their employees. If employees can get green cards without the company, they can leave or threaten to leave. If employees need their employer, they can't start the processes until the company assents, and can't leave while its in process. Depending on exact details that can give employers 5 or so more years where the employee is at their mercy.

It’s not weird when you understand that Americans never voted to have a skilled immigration system: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/29/podcasts/the-daily/electi.... Had someone tried to get one through Congress, they would have lost elections.

The system we have is one that was politically feasible to implement. On paper, we have a system for “non-immigrant” temporary workers. Employers sponsor green cards for skilled workers because the theoretically temporary job is the only avenue for most of these workers to get to the U.S. in the first place.

The US likes to tie everything to employment - see also healthcare and retirement plans. Coming from Canada, anyone can open up an RRSP account (equivalent of 401k) and your employer isn't involved at all. You control the account. In the US you're stuck with the 401k account your employer signs up for. If they decide not to offer a 401k then you lose that benefit.

The vast majority of immigration to the US is based on luck (family, diversity etc.) or misery (asylum, refugee, etc.). That's about 90% immigration. The remaining 10% is employment. Where did you pull the $1M figure out of? Is the Mexican sibling paying $1M in taxes to immigrate here? Peak chud logic here to penalize the smallest and most productive slice of immigration.

Honest question, does having a temporary worker on a 10 year H1B visa seem like it's benefiting US citizens working in the same sector?

you can already get a greencard by paying less than $1mm in taxes. in general, your requirements are way higher than what's even required for citizenship. and green cards don't need a civics test either.

but I agree that it would be nice to have a less fraught/complicated path to permanent residency.

Everyone should consider separating both tourism sector, and summer youth jobs from regular employment issues.

Those are special circumstances, but utterly different than regular low wage worker issues.

European kids are not going to pick tobacco; they are doing 'lifestyle' summer jobs in America.

These jobs are meant for students/youth, and necessarily going to pay a bit less but they obviously shouldn't be under duress.

It's an aspirational trade off - the business owners generally are not making bank for the most part. The system doesn't work without a lofty goodwill all around.

My cousins all worked as 'golf cart girls' at public courses, they liked being in the sun but the pay was sketchy.

All of this is very different from H1s, regular temporary workers.

But then employers couldn't treat H1 folks like slaves, and where would we be then?

H1B lasts 6 years and can't be extended further without an approved I140.

Great point. H1 can be sponsored but Green Card should not.

this is how it works in other countries. if you have been a legal resident for a number of years you can apply for permanent residency or even citizenship.

The entire US economy is organized around delegating government responsibilities to corporations. This is no different.

It was a system that was created to serve a temporary need. However like any temporary system, it becomes permanent. Then companies or employers abuse it to the max, use it keep wages arbitrarily low. They use their influence to convince people from LCOL areas to uproot their lives for promises of higher wages/better living.

But how would companies exploit the workers if the system worked your way? The exploitation is the point.

> Nothing to do with your employer dangling something for you,

they will dangle visa renewal for ppl to get to that time then.

There are different grounds for being granted a green card. One of those is that your employer wants to hire you permanently, and can't find an American to take the job. Getting a green card doesn't require an employer's sponsorship, that's just the most common application for green cards.

You didn't control for corruption.

A won't work because it will incentivize more scummy H1B employers.

H1B's are temporary visas and they make it very clear in the application process; there shouldn't be a path to citizenship through an H1B. I like the tax idea though