The H-1B Big Lie
The H-1B visa (learn more)was designed to bring in temporary foreign job seekers in order to ostensibly fill labor shortages in America. Over the years, it has become one of the most harmful visa programs, resulting in permanent displacement of American workers from the high-tech labor force. Educated and competent US STEM workers (in science, technology, engineering and mathematics) can not compete with foreign workers who are often brought in by industry to work at a fraction of the wages of American workers.
Industry's Big Lie
The "big lie" is a formal debating tactic where if lie is repeated often enough, it is taken as fact. This is the case with the claims of big business that there is a shortage of high-tech workers and that foreign H-1B workers are needed in the U.S. There is essentially no data supporting such a claim. A RAND study concluded that 'One primary question this study sought to answer is, are there current or imminent shortages in the U.S. STEM workforce This question can be answered, "No," with a degree of confidence for workers with a graduate education.'
Yet industry has found that blatantly repeating the big lie about high-tech worker shortages gains traction with Congress, who willingly allow them to use cheap, foreign, H-1B workers at the expense of American tech workers.
Here's an example of the Big Lie in action:
Trump supports immigration visas backed by Musk: 'I have many H-1B visas on my properties', New York Post, 28 December 2024:
Musk and other tech barons argued this week that the H-1B visa program is critical to ensuring American companies can find highly skilled labor which may not be easily available in the U.S. labor force and must be expanded.
One might ask: why is highly skilled labor not be easily available in America? The answer is that industry has forced huge numbers of high-skilled American workers out of the market by hiring cheap, docile, H-1B foreigners into programs that essentially amount to indentured servitude.
When Trump said 'Green cards for foreign graduates,' the debate on immigration reached a boiling point, Times of India, 27 December 2024:
During his 2024 campaign, Trump proposed that foreign students graduating from US colleges—especially from countries like India and China—should automatically receive Green Cards. His rationale was to prevent these students from leaving the US to start billion-dollar ventures abroad...
This marked a stark departure from Trump’s earlier policies, including his criticism of the H-1B visa program, which he had called a "theft of American prosperity."...
Age discrimination
Here are three crucial points about H-1B labor:
- "Cheap labor" H-1B workers are paid less than American workers.
- H-1B workers are essentially compliant indentured servants, tied to their employer for the duration of their visa.
- Use of H-1B workers facilitates age discrimination against older, more experienced, and therefore more expensive American workers.
The scam works as follows: Human Resources words job ads that filter out older applicants. Hiring departments then say that they can't find qualified American workers. They then are free to hire H-1B workers.
If Trump and Musk want to make America great again, they need to allow Americans to work again - at a living wage. American jobs should go to American workers. The H-1B visa scam should be abolished, not reformed.
Learn more: H-1B high-tech worker job displacement.