Conservatives in the Republican Party have been racked by disagreement the past few weeks over H-1B visas, the program which brings in foreigners for primarily lower skilled tech positions. Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have come out in favor of the program, while prominent Republicans like Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller and Laura Loomer vociferously disagree, concerned it takes away jobs from Americans.
The Democrats generally come down in favor of the program, although there have been some prominent exceptions like Senator Bernie Sanders. Trump spoke critically about the program in 2016, but has since softened his position. Ramaswamy has likewise stated that the program needs major reform, causing many to suspect the MSM is overly hyping up the divide on the right.
The 1990 Immigration Act launched the program, allowing employers to bring in temporary foreign workers with at least a bachelor’s degree or the equivalent. The workers are granted a three-year stay, which can be extended to six years. If they have an approved petition for a green card, it can be extended further. Each year, up to a cap of 65,000 new H-1B visas are allowed, and another 20,000 for foreigners who have a master’s degree from a U.S. university, but there are five times as many exceptions granted in addition to those, totalling three quarters of a million.
While tech is the largest sector that uses the program, falling into professional, scientific and technical services, the visas are also used in smaller amounts for educational services, manufacturing, healthcare and social assistance. Amazon was the largest employer in 2024, with 3,871 approvals.
Tech companies claim the field is growing so fast that hiring from American workers cannot keep up with the demand. But the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) retorts that companies are shrinking their numbers of American workers at the same time.
Musk, a naturalized citizen originally from South America who once held an H-1B visa himself, also admitted the program needs major reform, and said there should be minimum salaries set so companies aren’t incentivized to prefer lower paid foreign workers over Americans.
Recommended
A poll from Rasmussen Reports published in November found that 60 percent of Americans do not want more H-1B visa workers. Among Republicans, that number increases to 72 percent. Whereas only 47 percent of Democrats object to more H-1B visas.
Many believe it isn’t a clear right versus left issue. Due to that grayness, who do you trust putting out statistics? The MSM has been hyping up the differences on the right, when perhaps they’re not as polarized as the fake news portrays them. Trump, Ramaswamy and Musk all admit the program needs reform.
I know someone who graduated with a computer science degree from Arizona State University and has been unable to get a job in his field for well over a year. Based on talking to friends in higher ed, I believe much of it is due to being passed over for DEI hires, which aren’t necessarily the same thing as H-1B visa workers.
Ramaswamy posted on X last month that American companies often prefer to hire foreign workers because Americans have become so mediocre due to our culture that fails to prioritize ambition and achievement. More than 70% of H-1B visas go to Indian software engineers.
Now that corporations are starting to eliminate their DEI programs, maybe affirmative action and quotas will begin receding. Laws were passed around the country over the past 25 years banning them, but corporations and governments found ways around them. It will be helpful to conduct studies of the demographics of these corporations' workforces before and after DEI is really eliminated — if they cooperate and provide full and transparent statistics.
It is not easy to figure out the extent of the H-1B visa program displacing American workers, since there are special interests reporting on the stats. The left-leaning EPI, which the MSM is fond of citing, says in the first sentence on its About Us page that EPI’s vision includes a scenario where “every worker can join a union,” and below that emphasizes its DEI policy. “Our research exposes the forces that seek to exclude and diminish the power of people of color and women — particularly Black, Brown, and indigenous people — to the benefit of white supremacy and wealthy elites.” EPI appears to lump Asians and Indians in with whites, essentially asserting that they are as guilty as whites of taking jobs from other minorities.
Similarly, the American Immigration Council is frequently cited as an authority by the MSM in this area, but sounds like a shill for open borders.
If the H-1B program is scaled back, employers may get around it by turning to hiring overseas labor instead. A 2024 survey found that 83 percent of employers hired one or more employees outside of the country for roles initially intended to be based in the United States.
The Biden administration announced changes to the program in December, which go into effect on January 17. Most of the changes appear pretty minor, involving streamlining the program, including in certain types of hiring that do not have caps.
There needs to be investigations into the alleged displacement of American workers, which should ideally be conducted by Musk and Ramaswamy due to their expertise, interest, influence and likelihood of obtaining access to this data from tech corporations. They should also study data about unemployed American tech workers. It must be determined whether foreigners are being hired at lower wages through the program, since the data coming out on this is contradictory depending on which group is putting it out. Additionally, the pair needs to figure out that if displacement is occurring, how much of it is due to DEI, not the H-1B visa program.
Fears must be put to rest to stop the MSM hyped-up division in MAGA. Since Musk and Ramaswamy are already demanding reforms, there is a very good chance they will conduct these additional investigations.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member