Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont chimed in on the H-1B visa debate, slamming the program for replacing American jobs with cheaper foreign labor.
The H-1B visa program allows foreign nationals to temporarily work in America for specialty workforces like Silicon Valley. In December, the debate surrounding the program was sparked by MAGA allies like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who advocated in favor of the visas.
‘Bottom line,’ Sanders said. ‘It should never be cheaper for a corporation to hire a guest worker from overseas than an American worker.’
Discussion within the MAGA world persisted, with political heavyweights arguing both for and against the visa program. Notably, President-elect Donald Trump opposed the H-1B program in 2016, which he said had the “explicit purpose of substituting [American] workers at a lower pay.” Trump has since changed his position in favor of the visa program.
While the debate has been lively on the right, Sanders offered an unexpected take on the issue, echoing concerns Trump himself had in 2016.
“Elon Musk is wrong,” Sanders said. “The main function of the H-1B visa program is not to hire ‘the best and the brightest,’ but rather to replace good-paying American jobs with low-wage indentured servants from abroad. The cheaper the labor they hire, the more money the billionaires make.”
“If this program is really supposed to be about importing workers with highly advanced degrees in science and technology, why are H-1B guest workers being employed as dog trainers, massage therapists, cooks, and English teachers?” Sanders continued. “Can we really not find English teachers in America?”
Musk and Ramaswamy defended the visa program, saying the reason Americans were being displaced in the workforce by foreign workers was because American culture has “venerated mediocrity over excellence” and arguing that companies that utilize H-1B “made America strong.”
Sanders pushed back, saying that although America needs skilled workers, there is no need to import them.
“Mr. Musk, Mr. Ramaswamy, and others have argued that we need a highly skilled and well-educated workforce,” Sanders said. “They are right. But the answer, however, is not to bring in cheap labor from abroad. The answer is to hire qualified American workers first and to make certain that we have an education system that produces the kind of workforce that our country needs for the jobs of the future. And that’s not just engineering. We are in desperate need of more doctors, nurses, dentists, teachers, electricians, plumbers, and a host of other professions.”
“Bottom line,” Sanders said. “It should never be cheaper for a corporation to hire a guest worker from overseas than an American worker.”
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