A Line That Says It All
“Small hands signed this immigration policy. Big hands would have torn it up.”
The words may sound flippant, even mocking, but they capture a deeper truth. Small hands symbolize pettiness, fear, and insecurity. Big hands represent vision, courage, and the ability to lift others up. The newly announced $100,000 H-1B visa fee is the very definition of a small-hands policy — exclusion dressed up as reform, fear masquerading as strength.
On September 19, 2025, a presidential proclamation imposed a $100,000 fee on new H-1B petitions, effective 12:01 a.m. September 21. The White House later clarified it applies only to new applicants, not renewals, and is a one-time charge, after initial confusion that it might be annual.
But clarification doesn’t erase the damage. This decision doesn’t just change paperwork; it changes lives. It doesn’t just adjust fees; it shuts the door on talent, innovation, and families who believed America was still a place of opportunity.
Small hands signed this policy. And unless big hands rise to tear it up, the consequences will ripple across economies, communities, and futures.
The Policy in Focus
The H-1B program is one of the few immigration pathways that directly connects global talent with American opportunity. Each year, 65,000 visas are issued under the cap, plus 20,000 for advanced degree holders, totaling 85,000 cap-subject slots. Add in universities, nonprofits, and other cap-exempt employers, and the number of “new” approvals annually is closer to 120,000–130,000.
The new $100,000 fee dwarfs anything the program has ever seen. Before this, typical government filing costs ranged in the low-thousands, depending on employer size and processing choices. Suddenly multiplying that by twenty or thirty is not just an update — it’s an exclusionary wall.
The backlash was swift. Indian officials called it “concerning.” U.S. lawmakers branded it “reckless.” Immigrant rights groups warned of humanitarian and economic harm. Yet the administration’s framing was simple: protecting U.S. jobs.
But calling it “protection” doesn’t change what it is: a ransom fee. It is small-handed politics that trades away opportunity for applause lines.
What Small Hands Mean
To understand why this fee resonates so bitterly, you have to understand what “small hands” really mean. It’s not about anatomy. It’s about approach.
Small hands clutch tightly, afraid to share. They grasp at control because they lack confidence in vision. They sign policies that exclude, because they cannot imagine a bigger, more generous future.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen small hands steering immigration:
- The Muslim ban of 2017, which barred entire nationalities under the guise of security.
- The slashing of refugee admissions to historic lows.
- The “public charge” rule, punishing immigrants deemed too poor to be “desirable.”
- And now, the $100,000 H-1B fee, which disproportionately hits Indian and Chinese nationals.
Each step narrows America. Each one replaces openness with exclusion.
Small hands shrink a country. They sign proclamations that make the world smaller, colder, and meaner.
Who the Policy Really Targets
Let’s be blunt: this isn’t neutral policy. It is discriminatory in effect, if not in name.
In FY2024, ~71% of H-1B approvals went to Indian nationals, and ~12% to Chinese nationals. That means 83% of those directly hit by this policy are Asian immigrants.
By targeting the very visa category that overwhelmingly serves Indian and Chinese workers, the fee disproportionately excludes them. This is why critics call it racism in disguise — a financial wall built to block groups without ever naming them.
It’s also worth remembering: these are not underpaid workers taking jobs from Americans. Data shows 60–65% of H-1Bs are in computer-related occupations, with median salaries around $123,600. They are engineers, data scientists, and researchers driving some of the most innovative fields in the U.S. economy.
So why target them? Because small hands need scapegoats.
The Human Impact: Lives in the Crossfire
Behind every H-1B application is a human story. And behind every rejection is a human cost.
- The graduate student from India who just earned her U.S. master’s degree, planning to stay and work. That $100,000 fee ends her journey. Years of sacrifice and study collapse under a price tag.
- The startup in Boston trying to hire a machine learning engineer from abroad. For them, $100,000 is an entire year of runway. The job disappears, the work shifts overseas, and U.S. innovation falls behind.
- The family who has waited years for stability. Their children are in U.S. schools, their lives rooted in American communities. A blocked petition doesn’t just end a career — it uproots a family.
Small hands may see only numbers. Big hands would see lives.
Echoes of Authoritarianism
Why did one person call this the “beginning of another Hitler era”? Because patterns matter.
Authoritarian systems rarely start with violence. They start with exclusion. They pass policies that appear technical, but quietly strip opportunity from targeted groups. They normalize cruelty under the banner of protection.
The $100,000 fee is a policy of exclusion. It doesn’t mass deport, but it sets the stage for a culture where shutting doors becomes routine. It is a warning sign.
Small hands sign such policies. Big hands would rip them apart.
Economic Self-Sabotage
Supporters argue this protects U.S. workers. The truth: it undermines them.
The U.S. economy thrives on talent. H-1Bs fill critical roles in STEM fields, contribute to startups, and fuel innovation. Blocking them doesn’t create jobs for Americans — it sends jobs abroad.
Modeling the impact shows just how costly it could be:
- Assume ~130,000 new approvals annually.
- If only 10% of petitions proceed, 117,000 approvals vanish every year.
- That means ~83,000 Indian nationals and ~14,000 Chinese nationals blocked annually.
- Billions in research, revenue, and productivity gone.
Meanwhile, Canada, Europe, and Australia are eager to welcome this same talent. Small hands push them out; big hands would pull them in.
What Big Hands Would Do
If small hands sign policies of fear, what do big hands do? They tear them up.
Big hands are expansive. They build, they hold, they lift. They don’t fear talent from abroad; they embrace it as strength.
Big hands would:
- Reform the visa system to make it fairer, faster, and less bureaucratic.
- Protect workers by enforcing fair wages — without blocking global talent.
- Recognize that innovation is not a zero-sum game; when the U.S. welcomes talent, the whole economy rises.
Big hands understand that true leadership is not about exclusion. It’s about inclusion, resilience, and vision.
Choosing Between Small and Big
America stands at a crossroads. Will it choose the path of small hands, clinging to fear and exclusion? Or big hands, opening to opportunity and growth?
This isn’t only about H-1B visas. It’s about national identity. Immigration has always been America’s engine — from scientists who shaped NASA to entrepreneurs who built Silicon Valley. Closing that engine down isn’t just policy. It’s sabotage.
Small hands make America small. Big hands make it great.
Conclusion: Tearing It Up
In the end, the metaphor says it all:
“Small hands signed this immigration policy. Big hands would have torn it up.”
The $100,000 H-1B fee is not reform — it’s ransom. It’s not protection — it’s exclusion. It is small-handed governance in its purest form.
The question is whether America will let those small hands define its future, or whether big hands will rise — to tear up bad policy, to lift up people, and to hold open the doors of opportunity.
