Hasan breaks down the debate over H1B visas inside the Republican Party, how Gen Z conservatives are reframing the conversation around legal immigration, and what “merit” actually means.
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Co-Creator & Executive Producer: Hasan Minhaj
Co-Creator & Executive Producer: Prashanth Venkataramanujam
Executive Producer/Director: Tyler Babin
Executive Producer/Showrunner: Scott Vrooman
Producer: Kayla Feng
Producer: Annie Fick
Cinematographer: Austin Morales
Editor: Tyler Babin
Assistant Editor: Zach Silberberg
Assistant Editor: Zae Jordan
Talent Coordinator: Tanya Somanader
Executive Assistant: Samuel Piland
Creative Consultant: Andrew Durso
Researcher: Ishmael Daro
YOU CAN WATCH ON CNN.COM/WATCH OR THE CNN APP.
00:00 – Introduction
04:01 – Coming in the Right Way: Merit
06:24 – The MAGA Civil War
08:21 – Real Problems, Real Anger
10:36 – The Indians “Stealing American Jobs”
12:33 – Trump’s Nuanced Take on H-1Bs
13:48 – Indian Republicans
16:50 – Ads
19:51 – Meet the Zoomercons
24:21 – What Merit Means to Republicans
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THE SHOW:
Hasan Minhaj Doesn’t Know is a long-form interview podcast hosted by two-time Peabody Award-winning comedian Hasan Minhaj. The show features in-depth conversations with politicians, public figures, financial experts, scientists, intellectuals, authors and celebrities. Rather than sticking to standard talking points, Minhaj aims to ask deeper, more probing questions that reveal personal perspectives and challenge conventional narratives. The tone is direct and curious, and focused on uncovering what guests really think beyond rehearsed answers.
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Hasan Minhaj Doesn’t Know, Hasan Minhaj, Hasan Minhaj podcast, politics, political, political interviews, science interviews, financial interviews, politics interview, history interviews, culture interviews, interviews, political comedy, comedy, political, news, podcast, comedy podcast, politics podcast, Patriot Act, Patriot Act Netflix, issues, current affairs podcast, current events podcast, current events, talk show, trending political news, funny, satire, political satire, celebrity interviews, political videos, Democratic Party, Republican Party, us politics, American politics, long form interview, long form political, history interview, science interview
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I'm not on Twitter anymore but if you reply to the Heritage Foundation's pinned tweet with a link to this video I wouldn't hate it. https://x.com/Heritage/status/2032232654473470021
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Do Americans know how America grew?
Because it a form of indentured servitude that artificially surpresses wages. It allows companies to bring people over without them being able to walkout over ill treatment.
Charlie said…American first.
only 3? brev what about bob the builder?
A bit misleading, yet a lot of good points to consider, plus absolutely hilarios. Thank God for Indians like Hasan 🙂
4chan as a legitimate platform =D lol love this!
Corporates can get a dozen H1B PHDs for $120.00.
i'm hear for the tasteless dualing ad segways..
lol all the billionaires relies on H1B visa for cheap labor, and they are the ones funding MAGA. This is going nowhere.
Who is stopping government to implement merit based h1b?
Hey liberal…..we do not hate legal migration. You just interviewed (selectively) those fringe that will support your dumb theory
Blah blah blah…..everything is racist…..blah blah blah……. perpetual victim blah blah…… no human is illegal blah blah…….
You want to muddy the conversation by using random unverifiable "polls" and shift the criticism of H1-B while belittling them. If H1-B really brought High-skilled workers, they would have no problems paying the 100,000 for each workers because they could potentially earn them millions. The whole thing is a scam to hire Indians at lower wages so it brings down the asking salaries for the local population. Every person who encountered an H1-B worker always complain how stupid they are. There were people of talent coming in before, but now they are the worst sort of people that bring the 3rd world with them. Also, you are benefiting from the society and system the so called "invaders" created. If you showed up to the Americas while it was occupied by native Americans, they would have sacrificed you so they could have rain for their crops. Instead you want to call Americans idiots while benefiting from their country and system. GTFO!! And before one of you Indians call me racist, I am Indian as well. And I do not want America to end up like India.
Well, many if not most young tech workers are woke and on the left, I don't see why MAGA wants to limit H1B's. Why not let H1B's in and have the tech unemployment rate match India's, and salaries flattened to the same level as India's too. It is not funny that the MAGAs who are supposed to not even have college degrees, want to protect the woke and left who are most impacted by H1B's, while the woke and left are trying to prevent the limitation of flooding of competing workers.
While I disgree with your take, your good looks and humor make it challenging to do so. 😉
just ban H1B. I am done. They are not assimilating. Enough!
I'm certain that someone was offended with that " noone will be replaced by AI in my team except you're f***ing gone"😂 looking directly at camera. I love your videos Hasan.
@2:54 We are living the origin story of the movie Idiocracy.
H!B is a scam perpetrated by corporations to make more money … its not because you are talented
Yes – it’s our heritage and doesn’t need to be replaced with curry
"Gen Z Maga" is a terrifying phrase!
Indian is not the problem. TOO MANY IS.
H1B is not the problem. 72% TAKEN BY INDIAN IS.
Love MAGA ❤❤❤
Saw too many at IBM train their H1B replacements. Many i saw wasn't to fill missing skill but simply remove u.s. employees
listen to me. we are od Indian origin. Been here since 1975/77. American citizens. My wife got laid-off from KO and was asked to train her replacement in the Philippines in order to get her severance. The Company that got the contract was HP. Get off your fucking high horse. Read the tea leaves. Cheers.
TRUMP's people are happy.
I guess it's the MAGA who are his biggest die hard supporters.
America can manage without the STEM professionals from India.
at the end of the day it's just plain old racism
In Jersey City, NJ hundreds of working visa employees have taken over jobs from real Americans from greedy companies wanting to cut cost from hiring real Americans. That is why I hate any working visa. We have the College graduates in the USA to fill these positions at full pay. Also, many of these work visa holders, the women, I noticed were pregnant. I wonder why.
The h1 b visas are being scammed and need to be shut down , Immigrants both legal and are illegal are making life harder for our young people to get ahead in their own country. America first means Americans first!
Man I am Italian Mexican Spanish and Chinese and I love your show you are amazing
America is just xenophobic.. they won't agree to it though
"Indians are meritorious."
"Look at India"
same thing with indians who pushed out british. no meritocracy there? why did we push british out when they were taking out positions.
also discussing h1b without mention of rampant fraud is very disingenuous.
You got played.
After they got done using you to defend affirmative action, they hung you out to dry.
How's THAT for an emotional truth?
It’s dishonest to talk about merit without defining the scope. Do you give your extra savings to your children or some people from another country if they scored higher on SAT than your children?
Wow. If I did not spend thirty years working in IT, I might actually believe this presentation. It is polished, well delivered, and intentionally selective. The problem is that it ignores what experienced IT workers in the United States, the European Union, and AMEA have witnessed for decades. The gaslighting in this video is significant, and it relies on the hope that viewers outside of IT will not understand how the industry actually operates.
The core issue is not nationality. It is the economic incentive structure that rewards companies for replacing experienced domestic workers with individuals who will accept significantly lower salaries. That is the real definition of merit in these hiring pipelines. It is not about skill. It is not about excellence. It is about cost reduction.
Many of us have seen the same pattern repeat across multiple companies and multiple regions. Leadership hires workers who are dependent on visa sponsorship, who cannot negotiate salary, and who cannot risk losing employment. This dynamic creates a labor pool that is financially vulnerable and therefore easily exploited. It also creates an environment where misrepresentation of skills, project status, and system health becomes common because the incentive is to remain employed at any cost.
This is not speculation. It is a well documented insider threat pattern that security teams in the United States and abroad have been dealing with for years. When a CEO or senior leader prioritizes cost savings above competence, the result is predictable. Entire departments are replaced with cheaper labor, quality declines, and critical work is quietly outsourced without transparency. The public examples are well known. Major technology companies have placed leaders in charge of divisions who then replaced large portions of their workforce with lower cost offshore or visa dependent labor. The outcomes speak for themselves.
The video attempts to frame this as a debate about merit. In reality, it is a debate about economics and corporate incentives. The speaker uses charm and selective storytelling to dismiss the lived experiences of thousands of IT professionals who have watched their roles displaced, their teams hollowed out, and their industries reshaped by cost driven hiring practices.
Calling this out is not racist. It is factual. It is a description of a business model that has harmed domestic workers, undermined technical quality, and created long term security risks. The attempt to gaslight IT workers into believing that this is about merit rather than cost is insulting to anyone who has actually worked in the field long enough to see how these decisions are made.
Bravo hassan!!
Shut down H1-B now.H1-B is scammed.
Hey Hasan it’s not just MAGA.
We blame everyone except the corporations exploiting us.
I can’t get over karoline saying “droven down” 😬
They have always hated legal immigrants. The whole anti-illegal immigration rhetoric was aimed at casting out legal immigration. They just needed a good excuse to do so, and the illegal action of undocumented immigration gave them a good disguise. And now they have the chance to do it without political and legal setbacks.