History has conclusively proven that the federal government cannot successfully oversee any legal immigration program or manage the border effectively to end illegal immigration. The dozens of visas issued to every Bureau of Labor Statistics worker category, to refugees and to asylees are wrought with fraud. Calls for more visas to fill an imaginary worker shortage or to satisfy a special humanitarian cause are invariably misguided and should be, in Americans’ best interests, rejected.
No visa has done more damage to American workers than the H-1B, allegedly for highly skilled, foreign-born tech workers in specialty occupations but who, in reality, have only average skills. Nevertheless, the H-1B has, with Congress’ blessing, displaced large swaths of experienced, talented U.S. tech workers. The Department of Labor is responsible for ensuring that foreign workers do not displace or adversely affect wages or working conditions of U.S. workers, a provision that’s ignored. H-1B visas are allotted slots with minimal time and effort apportioned to determining the bona fides of the petitioners’ resumes. The fired citizen workers are subjected to the final indignity of having to train their foreign replacements even as they are shown the door. Among the dozens of examples where this shameful abuse took place are Disney, Southern California Edison, Caterpillar, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Accenture. In her New York Times story “Pink Slips at Disney but First Train Foreign Replacements“, reporter Julia Preston wrote: “Former employees said many immigrants who arrived were younger technicians with limited data skills who did not speak English fluently and had to be instructed in the basics of the work.”
As the old saying among immigration enforcement advocates goes, nothing is more permanent than temporary immigrant workers. Once here, they remain for decades, an objective they can satisfy since the H-1B is a dual intent visa—the worker hopes his temporary job in the U.S. will turn into a permanent one, and that the employer will sponsor him for a green card, and eventually citizenship.
Despite the H-1B visa’s well-known history of displacing U.S. citizen tech workers, Vivek Ramaswamy, the Cincinnati-born multimillionaire and recent GOP presidential candidate, made a misguided push for more foreign labor. In July, Ramaswamy spoke at Washington D.C.’s National Conservatism Conference, and decried the border mess, called for an end to birthright citizenship, and demanded immigration law enforcement, but he also spouted many of the long discredited talking points H-1B backers promote. In short, Ramaswamy wants to import more foreign labor into the U.S. economy. The former tech entrepreneur stressed that only what he referred to as “high quality” immigrants—often referred to as the “best and brightest” — would be admitted and awarded work permission. Ramaswamy’s definition of “high-quality” is someone who speaks English, and has a grasp of American history and civics, a low bar indeed. A sampling from the U.S. citizenship test: We elect a president for how many years? What is the name of the president now? Who is the governor of your state now? Since he made his fortune in biotech and hedge fund partnership, Ramaswamy’s endorsement for more H-1Bs is unsurprising but nevertheless disappointing. The portion of Ramaswamy’s address to NatCon that dealt with employment visas could have been delivered by California’s U.S. Representative, immigration lawyer, and long-time, relentless H-1B champion Zoe Lofgren.
Year after fiscal year, 85,000 H-1Bs displace U.S. tech workers or take positions that might otherwise go to U.S. university students hoping to enter the labor market. Neither Congress nor employers have demonstrated concern about how the fired, unemployed U.S. tech worker will meet his financial obligations—mortgage, car payments, college tuition.
Ramaswamy would do well to listen to former Labor Secretary Ray Marshall who evaluated the H-1B bluntly. Jimmy Carter’s key labor advisor called the H-1B: “One of the best con jobs ever done on the American public and [its] political systems.” Explaining his opinion, Marshall concluded that: “H-1B pays below market rate. If you’ve got H-1B workers, you don’t have to do training or pay good wages.” Congressional advocates have bought into the H-1B visa hype but in so doing, have spurned the talents and contributions that gifted U. S. tech workers make to the economy. Decades and hundreds of thousands of H-1B visas have destroyed many Americans’ careers. Time to end the deceit and put U.S. tech workers on a level playing field.
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