WestAustinAg

There is no 87 percent reduction in overall H-1B visas. There's a $100k fee on new H-1B petitions which does nothing but freeze small firms out of the importing cheap labor game. Of course to allow Big Tech to get what they want because they pay it.

JUST IN: Reading scores for students in grades 3 through 8 have fallen in 47 of 50 states since 2015.

During the Biden administration, H-1B visa holders were buying houses with 97-100% financing. 97% would come from the FHA, with the rest coming from state first-time home buyer programs. Zero money down. Thanks to programs that were supposed to be helping low-income American families buy their own homes. FHA loans to non-permanent residents quickly grew to represent 6% of mortgage issuances. The percentage was undoubtedly higher in places like the DFW area, where H-1B visa holders are disproportionately concentrated. I don’t have anything against people in America on H-1B visas. I’ve said it before—and I’ll say it again—that I’ve found many of them to be great people on an individual level, and I wish them all nothing but the best. Individual immigrants—especially those here legally—are not at fault for flawed US immigration policy. But this might be the most radicalizing thing I’ve ever seen. Not only are American workers forced to compete for jobs, they’re also forced to compete in the housing market against people bringing 0-3% of a house’s cost to the closing table, versus the 10-20% most people have to pay. First, companies import mass numbers of H-1B visa holders, largely in "back office" white-collar fields like IT and accounting. This essentially imposes a lower ceiling on domestic wages in these job categories. Next, these workers—who are generally concentrated in certain geographic areas—create more demand for housing (especially in good school districts), driving up home prices and the cost of living. Then, to top it off, they don’t even have to save up money for a down payment. They can close on a $500k house with $0-15k plus a 97% FHA loan. Meanwhile, ordinary American families are forced to come to with $50-100k for the same down payment. I don’t care how you feel about Trump or what your preferred immigration policies are; there’s no defending this. It screws over hard-working American citizens several different ways over, and it’s yet another reason why I will always be glad Trump won and Kamala Harris lost in 2024.

AUSTIN WOMAN's dogs maul a woman walking down a sidewalk. The victim didn't think she'd survive, and her arm is so badly torn she'll need plastic surgery. Panvrla White was charged in March with a felony, her Cane Corsos were euthanized, and she posted bond with orders not to possess any pets. Then things got worse. Travis County prosecutors quietly dismissed two of her unrelated felonies (burglary and criminal mischief) through pre-trial diversion. Days later, White started threatening shelter staff, got banned from the property, and kept coming back. When officers arrested her last month, they found meth tucked in her bra. She bonded out again. A week later, she tracked down a witness from the dog case at an HEB and punched him in the face and allegedly threw a rock went through his window. Then she called a veteran's crisis line and said she had an AK-47 and was going to kill shelter staff and the officers who took her dogs. She named an animal services investigator and said, "by the end of the day there will be no more of you." White has 32 cases in Travis County, including a felony for forging docs to sell a dead lady's house, plus convictions for robbery/theft and credit card abuse. A harassment case is still pending from last year, when her OTHER dog, a Spanish Mastiff, attacked a neighbor she then spent weeks threatening.

We basically did NINJA loans again but this time with non-US citizens Many homebuilders, such as Bloomfield Homes in Celina, TX offered access to FHA loans for H-1B visa holders through their preferred lenders until May of 2025, when Trump had HUD shut these lending practices down Some of these FHA loans offered 100% financing through a combination of a standard FHA loan and access to State assisted first time homebuyer grants for the 3% downpayment Yes, you read that correctly, your tax dollars funded home-buying grants for non-US Citizens during the Biden administration Is it just a coincidence that home prices began falling at a rapid pace in Celina, TX almost immediately after Trump shut this program down? How many people bought a brand new home with zero money down at peak 2022-2024 pricing? You won’t see an impact at a national level, but you WILL see it in certain markets with a lot of H-1B tech workers and new construction

5 of the 10 cities that spend the most per homeless person are in California. SF alone spends more per homeless person than NY and Portland combined.