A former Meta employee is celebrating the recent court decision that struck down the increased H-1B visa fees imposed by the Trump administration. Zach Wilson, previously a data engineer at the company owned by Mark Zuckerberg, took to X to express his approval of the announcement.
Wilson's Reaction
Wilson shared that for the past six months, when Indian students asked him, 'How do I get a data engineering job in the US?' his answer was, 'You don't because of Trump.' He explained that due to the high visa fees, he had to visit Bangalore and Hyderabad in 2026 to meet with developers in India.
'Because if we can't bring the brains to America, the brains will continue building amazing things in India. And the phenomenal entrepreneurs and engineers I met in India were incredible. The world is balancing out,' he wrote.
Wilson also added that it was 'amazing' to see that America still has the checks and balances necessary to keep it a land of immigrants and new ideas. 'Today is one of the few days in a very long time that I say I'm proud to be an American and that my government is doing something right,' he added.
Social Media Reactions
Wilson's post received mixed reactions online. While some agreed with his views, others criticized him for supporting Indians. One user claimed, 'The quality of engineers coming out of India now is second-rate at best. It would be okay to have one or two low performers on a team, but Indians are extremely racist and bigoted, so they only hire other Indians. Most teams now consist of low performers and one old white guy who solves all the problems. If you are black or Latino, they will eliminate you.' Wilson replied that he was hired by three Indian hiring managers when he worked in big tech.
Another user asked, 'If they can just build things in India then why don't they?' Wilson responded that India's economy is growing three to four times faster than the US economy.
A third user wrote, 'Like all these lame efforts, this is going to get overruled in very short order by a higher court and, in the meantime, these applications simply won't be processed. There are no amazing brains in the third world and I love that even normies are now waking up to that reality.'
Background on the H-1B Visa Fee Hike
The Trump administration increased the H-1B visa fees to $100,000 in September 2025. However, on June 8, 2026, a federal judge in Boston struck down the policy, ruling that it was an unlawful tax that exceeded the president's authority. 'The Court finds that the Policy imposes a tax on H-1B petitions without the requisite delegation by Congress,' wrote US District Court Judge Leo Sorokin, siding with the 20 states that had already declined the policy.
Previously, Wilson had ignited controversy by claiming that Trump's move would wipe out 80% of the competition in top tech jobs and give American workers their 'moment.' 'When I worked at Meta in 2017, I was on a team of 17 people. Fifteen of the 17 were on H-1B visas,' Wilson wrote. 'I was one of two Americans on the team, specifically for core growth data engineering. That's $1.5 million in visa fees under the new rules.' He added, 'If you're an American looking to land a big tech role, now is your time because more than 80% of your competition literally just vanished overnight. Good luck.'
However, due to India's growing tech sector and AI boom, Wilson appears to have changed his stance and is now investing in the country and its people.
