Yeh, it's Wiki.

Seems the program really got going under H W. Figures.

There's more there and includes one study that said it didn't impact Americans.

This is just snippets from it:

History of H1B Visa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-1B_visa

The Immigration Act of 1990 was signed into law by President George H. W. Bush on November 20, 1990. The H-1 visa was split into two different visas. The law created the H-1A visa for nurses, and the H-1B visa was established for workers in a "specialty occupation". The Immigration Act defined a specialty occupation as "an occupation that requires theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge, and attainment of a bachelor's or higher degree in the specific specialty (or its equivalent) as a minimum for entry into the occupation in the United States".

Proposed legislation in 2007

Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois and Charles Grassley of Iowa began introducing "The H-1B and L-1 Visa Fraud & Prevention Act" in 2007. According to Durbin, speaking in 2009, "The H-1B visa program should complement the U.S. workforce, not replace it;" "The…program is plagued with fraud and abuse and is now a vehicle for outsourcing that deprives qualified American workers of their jobs." Compete America, a tech industry lobbying group, opposed the proposed legislation.[97]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compete_America

(Includes a list of members)

2020 H-1B entry suspension

On April 22, 2020, President Donald Trump signed a presidential proclamation that temporarily suspended the entry of people with non-immigrant visas, including H-1B visas.[153] On June 22, 2020, President Trump extended the suspension for H-1B visa holders until December 31, 2020.[154][155] On December 31, 2020, President Trump issued a presidential proclamation extending the suspension of entry until March 31, 2021, because they would pose "a risk of displacing and disadvantaging United States workers during the economic recovery following the COVID-19 outbreak".[156]

2021 H-1B entry suspension expiration

President Joe Biden allowed the suspension to expire on March 31, 2021, which allowed H-1B visa holders to enter the U.S. beginning on April 1, 2021.[158]

In June 2015, ten senators requested the U.S. Department of Labor to open an investigation of outsourcing of technical tasks by Southern California Edison to Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys, then laying off 500 technology workers.[161][162] After a ten-month investigation, the U.S. Department of Labor determined that no charges should be filed against any of the firms.[163][164]

In 2015 and 2016, the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on problems with the H-1B visa. On March 17, 2015, Chairman Chuck Grassley of the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on "Immigration Reforms Needed to Protect Skilled American Workers".[165][166][167] On February 25, 2016, Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Jeff Sessions held a hearing on "The Impact of "High-Skilled" Immigration on U.S. Workers.[168][169] These hearings' witnesses included AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, Howard University Associate Professor Ron Hira, American Immigration Council Benjamin Johnson, Washington Alliance of Technology Workers Attorney John Miano, former Disney IT Engineer Leo Perrero, Colgate University Associate Professor of Economics Chad Sparber, and Rutgers University Professor Hal Salzman.

Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the committee commented on the H-1B visa during the March 17th hearing:

The program was intended to serve employers who could not find the skilled workers they needed in the United States. Most people believe that employers are supposed to recruit Americans before they petition for an H-1B worker. Yet, under the law, most employers are not required to prove to the Department of Labor that they tried to find an American to fill the job first. And, if there is an equally or even better qualified U.S. worker available, the company does not have to offer him or her the job. Over the years the program has become a government-assisted way for employers to bring in cheaper foreign labor, and now it appears these foreign workers take over – rather than complement – the U.S. workforce.[170]

2016 election policy issue

Further information: § Proposed reform in 2017 and 2018

The H-1B visa became an issue in the 2016 United States presidential election. According to Computerworld, candidate Donald Trump took a stance to "pause" and re-write the H-1B system.[171] Additionally, he invited guest speakers to raise awareness of the hundreds of IT workers displaced by H-1B guest workers during his rallies. Candidate Donald Trump stated his policy position and solution on H-1Bs in his campaign website on immigration policy:

"Increase prevailing wage for H-1Bs.

We graduate two times more Americans with STEM degrees each year than find STEM jobs, yet as much as two-thirds of entry-level hiring for IT jobs is accomplished through the H-1B program. More than half of H-1B visas are issued for the program's lowest allowable wage level, and more than eighty percent for its bottom two. Raising the prevailing wage paid to H-1Bs will force companies to give these coveted entry-level jobs to the existing domestic pool of unemployed native and immigrant workers in the U.S., instead of flying in cheaper workers from overseas. This will improve the number of black, Hispanic and female workers in Silicon Valley who have been passed over in favor of the H-1B program. Mark Zuckerberg’s personal Senator, Marco Rubio, has a bill to triple H-1Bs that would decimate women and minorities.

Is There Really a STEM Workforce Shortage?

By Ron Hira

And yet, for almost as long, unsubstantiated claims that there is a significant shortage of STEM talent have been a running feature of STEM workforce policy discussions. In 1959, economists Kenneth J. Arrow and William M. Capron published an article responding to complaints of a shortage of scientists and engineers, noting that “in view of all the discussion of the ‘shortage’ problem, it is remarkable how little direct evidence is available.” Fifty-five years later, in 2014, demographer Michael S. Teitelbaum wrote: “The alarms about widespread shortages or shortfalls in the number of US scientists and engineers are quite inconsistent with nearly all available evidence.”

Frequently, the main stakeholder groups steering these conversations—businesses, universities, and government research agencies—benefit from the push to train and import more STEM workers. Others, including students and workers, rarely have their interests formally represented in these discussions. So even though numerous reports, analyses, books, and news articles have carefully examined demand and supply in the STEM workforce and labor markets over the decades and found no widespread or lasting shortages, perceptions of such shortages endure."

"

Tried to embed:

https://issues.org/stem-workforce-shortage-data-hira/

>>22245570

Additional:

But even in 2020, the number of bachelor’s degrees conferred in computer science alone was 97,047—40,147 more than the implied annual demand from the BLS projections. This mismatch is even more pronounced for engineering, where the number of degrees produced in a single academic year (148,120 in 2019–2020) exceeds not just the projected average annual growth, but the entire ten-year projected job growth from 2020 to 2030 (127,700).