Houston-Area Vape Shop Hires Multiple H-1B Employees
Why? Plus: the H-1B map Texas Republicans will not be retweeting.
In a viral video posted on X yesterday, Houston resident Nick Plumb discovered a vape shop located in Spring had sponsored several H-1B employees.
Yes, you read that right. A vape shop has sponsored H1-B employees. Seemingly because they are unable to find Americans able to run vape shops.
Those H-1B applications include positions for:
(3) General Managers
(1) Marketing Research Analyst
(1) Financial & Research Analyst
The data above was pulled using Plumb’s own website where users can view companies in their area and see what H-1B applications have been applied for. You can check out his website here
In Plumb’s video, he enters the vape shop to request to view the company’s public access files. The woman working at the store is unable to provide the files and also confirms the general managers she’s familiar with are American and not foreigners.
Why does a Vape shop need H-1B employees?
From the Department of Labor:
The intent of the H-1B provisions is to help employers who cannot otherwise obtain needed business skills and abilities from the U.S. workforce by authorizing the temporary employment of qualified individuals who are not otherwise authorized to work in the United States.
Are we meant to believe that this company was unable to find an American to run some vape stores so they had to bring in someone from overseas?
You’ve got to be high to believe this.
Current Revolt reached out to the store to inquire with the owners regarding the H-1B applications. The employee working refused to provide any contact information for the owners but we left our info for them to contact us back. No response had been received by press time.
Current Revolt also spoke to Nick Plumb who said he filed official complaints with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The Top 5 H-1B Districts Held by Texas Republicans
Type in your zip. Ruin your afternoon.
A site called LayoffHedge mapped every H-1B job filing in America since 2015 to the congressional district where the job sits. Seven million filings, 436 districts, searchable by zip.
Here are the five biggest H-1B districts in Texas represented by Republicans with some bonus statistics (weird but true). Every Texas district has about 767,000 people.
1. Pat Fallon, TX-04 (northeast Texas, reaching into the DFW suburbs)
Filings: 106,892, the #9 most H-1’d district in America
American Worker Replacement Rate: 13.9%
Top filer: Cognizant, with JPMorgan Chase right behind (state subsidy recipients)
2. Beth Van Duyne, TX-24 (DFW mid-cities)
Filings: 81,784, #13 in America
American Worker Replacement Rate: 10.7%
Top filer: Amazon (state subsidy recipient)
3. Wesley Hunt, TX-38 (west Houston)
Filings: 43,953
American Worker Replacement Rate: 5.7%
Top filer: Infosys (state subsidy recipient)
4. Jake Ellzey, TX-06 (Arlington down to Ellis County)
Filings: 43,757
American Worker Replacement Rate: 5.7%
Top filer: Tata Consultancy Services
5. Brandon Gill, TX-26 (Denton County)
Filings: 34,627
American Worker Replacement Rate: 4.5%
Top filer: Fidelity (state subsidy recipient)
For the record: these are Labor Department position filings stacked since FY2015, not a live headcount of workers, so this is more of a confession, not a census.
Two Texas Republicans hold top-15 H-1B districts. Four hold top-35. Five run on border security. 311,013 requests for imported labor.
Type in your zip to ruin your day.
We will continue monitoring the situation at prevailing wage.