I personally believe that the H1 visa should get split into more distinct fields.

That was the way that it started... the H-1A ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-1A_visa ) was for nurses and H-1B was for other specialty occupations.

Nurses transitioned to the H-1C visa (which expired in 2009 https://www.uscis.gov/archive/h-1c-registered-nurse-working-... )

So, split out technology careers from H-1B so that they can be regulated with less impact on the other careers that are currently under the H-1B.

The other part would be to properly fund DOL so that they have the resources to inspect H-1B-dependent employers ( https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/62c-h1b-depende... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-1B-dependent_employer ) more carefully and prosecute visa fraud in a more timely manner (note that this also gets to other parts that got struck down with Chevron deference so instead of DOL being able to do things administratively it requires going through the courts).

And yes, I do believe that upping the filing fees for H-1B-dependent employers would be a good thing... and auditing them to make sure that they have a butt in seat position for their employees and aren't hiring to try to make a deeper bench of poorly qualified individuals doing routine tasks that do not require a specialty technology degree.

The current (rather hamfisted) approach to trying to cut back on immigration has knock on effects that are impacting rural and remote parts America to a much greater degree than urban areas.

https://kansasreflector.com/2025/10/18/how-new-foreign-worke...

https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2026/03/14/sen-murkowski-i...