Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) says the H-1B visa program, which allows hundreds of thousands of mid-level foreign workers primarily from India to take professional jobs in the United States every year, is “kneecapping white collar workers” across the country who are often laid off and forced to train their foreign replacements.
During a speech at the National Conservative Conference, Schmitt seemingly blasted old-guard Republicans who support legal immigration at all costs, including the H-1B visa program, which he called a mere tool for businesses to hire cheap, compliant foreign labor over college-educated Americans.
“The old conservative establishment may have opposed something like illegal immigration on procedural grounds — simply because it was illegal. But they took no issue with it in substance, and if the same thing was achieved through ‘legal’ avenues, many of them would celebrate and support it,” Schmitt said:
At this point, it should be clear that the fact that something is sanctioned by our government does not mean it’s good for our country. That much is obvious with various forms of legal immigration today. [Emphasis added]
For decades, we heard that so-called high-skilled immigration was an urgent necessity. The H-1B visa, for example, was sold as a way to keep America “globally competitive.” Of course, we do have an interest in attracting the truly exceptional few, the very best and brightest in the world. But that’s not how programs like the H-1B have actually functioned. Instead, they’ve imported a vast new labor force from abroad — not to fill jobs Americans can’t or won’t do, but to undercut American wages, replace American workers, and transfer entire industries into the hands of foreign lobbies. [Emphasis added]
Indeed, as Schmitt notes, the H-1B visa program is used by companies to outsource entire industries — mainly in Information Technology (IT) — to lower-wage foreign workers who primarily arrive in the U.S. from one region in India.
“We have funneled in millions of foreign nationals to take the jobs, salaries, and futures that should belong to our own children — not because the foreign workers are smarter or more talented, but merely because they are cheaper and more compliant, and therefore preferable in the eyes of too many business elites who often see their own countrymen as an inconvenience,” he said.
Schmitt continued:
While our trade agreements kneecapped blue-collar workers—a slow-moving disaster, decades in the making—abuse of the H-1B is kneecapping white-collar workers right before our eyes. For the tens of thousands of Americans who were forced to train their foreign H-1B replacements just to get their severance package, the fact that it was “legal” is little comfort.
[Emphasis added]
For years, Breitbart News has chronicled the abuses against white-collar American professionals as a result of the H-1B visa program. Americans are often laid off from their jobs and forced to train their foreign H-1B replacements.
At any given time, there are about 650,000 foreign H-1B visa workers in the U.S.
Research published in 2024 in the Journal of Business Ethics reviewed wage data comparing starting wages for foreign H-1B visa workers with those of their American counterparts. The data showed that foreign H-1B visa workers were paid 10 percent less than Americans doing the same work.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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