Republican slams Purdue University for hiring H-1B worker for $149,000 software engineer role

An Indiana Republican lawmaker criticised Purdue University for hiring a foreign software engineer on an H-1B visa, questioning why the taxpayer-funded institution could not find a qualified American for the same role.Andrew Ireland posted on X that Purdue was hiring “ANOTHER foreign software engineer on a H-1B visa” at a salary of $149,000 a year.“Does anyone believe no qualified American could do this job for $149,000 a year? The same school has graduated tens of thousands of computer science students,” he wrote. “This has to stop.”Ireland has previously raised concerns about Purdue’s use of the H-1B visa programme. Last month, he criticised Purdue University Northwest for filing an H-1B visa application to hire a foreign national as an assistant professor of marketing at a salary of $127,500.

On January 3, he wrote: “Taxpayer-funded Purdue University disclosed it is hiring a foreigner on an H-1B visa to teach marketing.” He added: “Does anyone seriously believe no American in the Chicago area can teach marketing for $127,500 a year? The same university even has a PHD program for marketing students”.That marketing role was listed on Purdue Northwest’s Labour Condition Application from June 1, 2026 to May 31, 2029 at its Hammond campus.

Purdue University has been an active user of the H-1B programme. According to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data, the university filed 265 H-1B Labour Condition Applications in fiscal year 2025, with 258 approved.The H-1B visa is designed for American employers to hire high-skilled foreigners in special roles including tech and defence. However, some MAGA critics and GOP leaders argue that in fields such as marketing, software engineering and data science, there is no shortage of domestic talent in the US, and giving the same jobs to Indian or Chinese workers coming from abroad is straight up robbery.USCIS data show that 399,395 H-1B petitions were approved nationwide in fiscal year 2024, a 3 per cent increase from 2023. Educational institutions accounted for 5.6 per cent of those approvals.Many ‘America First’ supporters have claimed that high levels of H-1B approvals suppress wages and reduce opportunities for American graduates. At the same time, political figures including US President Donald Trump and business leaders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have defended the visa programme as a way to attract highly skilled global talent or the “best of the best.”