American companies are importing mixed-skill migrants via the H-1B visa program to police Americans’ speech in their workplaces, says Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO).
“In light of everything we know about [corporate] DEI, it’s alarming that American employers appear to be importing foreign workers to work in these [DEI] roles … where they are tasked with policing the speech and thought of our own citizens,” Schmitt tweeted on Thursday. He added:
Rather than recruiting genuinely exceptional top-level talent, in many cases the H-1B visa is now regularly used to staff middle management bureaucracies. Rather than 160+ IQ rocket scientists, it’s being used to import HR managers, customer service representatives, and so on.
Schmitt sent a September 25 letter to Joe Edlow, chief of the immigration service division of the Department of Homeland Security, asking for explanations and data:
The H-1B visa program’s purpose [in 1990] was to address bona fide specialty occupation shortages — chiefly in technical disciplines — not to undercut American workers or import ideological bureaucrats to surveil our workplaces. The fact that the program is being used to hire DEI functionaries from abroad is further evidence of how far it has drifted from its original stated mission. Rather than recruiting genuinely exceptional top-level talent, the H-1B visa is now regularly used to hire and staff middle management bureaucracies. We have seen the same pattern in other low-skill or non-specialty occupations: project managers, communications staff, HR generalists, marketing coordinators, customer service representatives, and so on.
Furthermore, the documents I have only capture positions with explicit keywords like “Diversity,” “Equity,” and “Inclusion” in the title. A much larger swathe of DEI or DEI-adjacent roles could exist under more innocuous titles: “HR Administrator”, “Wellness Coordinator”, etc. As you know, an LCA establishes an employer’s intent to fill a position through the H-1B program but does not by itself prove that the H-1B has been approved by USCIS. Many of the records I reviewed were certified, but I still have limited knowledge regarding exactly how many H-1B visas have been issued for these roles.
Nationwide, roughly 1 million H-1B workers and H4EAD spouses fill white-collar jobs needed by U.S. graduates.
On September 16, President Trump signed a proclamation that sets token curbs on the inflow of new H-1B workers, but which also sketches the vast economic and civic damage imposed by the multiple visa worker programs, including the corruption-ridden J-1, L-1, H4EAD, and H-1B visa-worker programs:
“The large-scale replacement of American workers through systemic abuse of the program has undermined both our economic and national security,” said the proclamation, which continued:
The number of foreign STEM workers in the United States has more than doubled between 2000 and 2019, increasing from 1.2 million to almost 2.5 million, while overall STEM employment has only increased 44.5 percent during that time. Among computer and math occupations, the foreign share of the workforce grew from 17.7 percent in 2000 to 26.1 percent in 2019. And the key facilitator for this influx of foreign STEM labor has been the abuse of the H-1B visa.
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The abuse of the H-1B program is also a national security threat. Domestic law enforcement agencies have identified and investigated H-1B-reliant outsourcing companies for engaging in visa fraud, conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and other illicit activities to encourage foreign workers to come to the United States.
There is growing evidence that the H-1B program diverts wealth from American professionals to investors, slows innovation, and drains the wealth-generating productivity needed to grow the economy.
The multiple foreign-worker programs also drain wealth from Midwest states and divert their wealth to coastal investors.
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