I'd take a softer stance against the statement, though I do disagree with it. As a Californian, I'd have trouble signing away my right to leave the software fi

I'd take a softer stance against the statement, though I do disagree with it. As a Californian, I'd have trouble signing away my right to leave the software field for the next 7 years, or granting to my employer the right to have me deported if I quit my job. Employers may prefer employees who they know have limited legal rights to participate as free members of the work force. In fact, the US has a long (and at times, horrendously ugly) history of programs to import workers who aren't free to choose the circumstances of their own lives. Because US citizens can't give up certain rights, they may be at a disadvantage where it comes to getting jobs where employer control over a worker's residency rights have become the norm. After all, why would you hire a free person who can threaten to leave during salary negotiations, when you can instead hire someone who depends on you for the right to live and work in the US? Of course, I'd never, ever make that trade. I'd rather switch fields, or avoid that field altogether. This may account for some of the aversion to software development careers we observe among people who do are free as individuals to live and work in the US without corporate "sponsorship"