Why Silicon Valley Needs Immigration
Uncanny Valley | WIRED
WIRED
4.1 • 572 Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Expanded deportations, a virtually shutdown asylum process, increased scrutiny of H1-B visa applicants—immigration policy has been overhauled under the latest Trump administration. And, just last week the Trump administration said it would begin revoking the visas of some Chinese students who are currently studying at U.S. schools. On today’s episode, we dive into the impacts that these changes could have on the tech industry from the talent pipeline to future innovations.
Articles mentioned in this episode: The Trump Administration Wants to Create an ‘Office of Remigration’, US Tech Visa Applications Are Being Put Through the Wringer
You can follow our hosts on Bluesky—Michael Calore is @snackfight, Lauren Goode is @laurengoode, and Katie Drummond is @katie-drummond.
Join WIRED’s best and brightest on Uncanny Valley as they dissect the collision of tech, politics, finance, and business, from Alexis Ohanian's newest tech venture to the effects of inaccurate information from artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots on social protests.
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| 0:00.0 | A quick note before we begin today. |
| 0:03.0 | We recorded this episode before the Trump administration's travel ban on citizens from |
| 0:07.4 | 12 countries from entering the United States and before its proclamation to suspend all |
| 0:12.9 | new student visas for students enrolling at Harvard University, although we will get to |
| 0:17.8 | student visas quite a bit in this episode. |
| 0:20.8 | How's everybody doing this week? I'm good. I just got back from Katie's. Although we will get to student visas quite a bit in this episode. |
| 0:22.3 | How is everybody doing this week? |
| 0:26.1 | I'm good. I just got back from Katie's motherland, Canada. |
| 0:26.6 | Oh. |
| 0:27.1 | Yeah. |
| 0:29.1 | Lauren and I were in Vancouver together. |
| 0:29.9 | We were. |
| 0:35.9 | Although I saw her for probably 15 minutes in the span of like five days. |
| 0:37.5 | I'm doing okay. |
| 0:43.2 | I also, as we just established, was in Vancouver with Lauren at Web Summit. |
| 0:48.8 | And I took a red eye home on Thursday night, and it was three hours late. |
| 0:50.3 | And so that was a lot. |
| 0:51.3 | Yikes. |
| 0:55.6 | And then Lauren, right before we started recording, just told me that I have a bobblehead. |
| 0:59.7 | So I'm just grappling with that feedback. |
| 1:02.2 | I did not say bobblehead. |
| 1:09.9 | I said you had celebrity energy because your head presents well on camera. |
... |
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