Bernie Sanders attacks H-1B visa program for replacing US jobs with ‘salaried employees’
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., takes aim at the controversial H-1B visa program, arguing that it replaces “high-paying American jobs with low-wage foreign workers” — just as the program is at the center of debate within the Republican Party.
“The primary function of the H-1B visa program and other guest worker initiatives is not to hire the ‘best and brightest,’ but to replace high-paying American jobs with low-paid foreign workers,” Sanders wrote on X. “What is the workforce they are hiring cheaper, billionaires earn more.”
The a self-described democratic socialist has a history of opposing a program that allows American companies to hire foreign workers for specialized occupations. It is mainly used by the tech industry, but faces criticism mainly from the right that it brings in cheap labor from overseas to replace American workers.
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Prominent liberals like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., have argued that the Democratic Party lost the 2024 election because it abandoned the working class. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)
The program has recently become part of the intra-republic debate when Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who Trump picked to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, have argued for the importance of foreign workers for tech companies.
“The reason I’m in America with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla, and hundreds of other companies that have made America strong thanks to H1B,” Musk said at X.
That has reopened a rift between those on the right over the program and whether it is being used to attract top talent or whether companies are using it to bring in cheaper labor, primarily from India, who are on visas.
Sanders cited statistics showing that in 2022 and 2023, the top 30 corporations using the program laid off more than 85,000 American workers, while hiring more than 34,000 H-1B workers, and that 33% of new IT jobs were filled by foreign domestic workers. workers. He also pointed to layoffs at Tesla, one of Musk’s companies.
Elon Musk, pictured, and Vivek Ramaswamy have been appointed to head the Department of Government Efficiency. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“If this program is really supposed to be about importing workers with advanced degrees in science and technology, why are H-1B guest workers employed as dog trainers, massage therapists, cooks and English teachers?” he said. “Can we really not find English teachers in America?”
Sanders acknowledged that there could be a labor shortage that could be filled H-1B workersbut he called for a substantial increase in guest worker benefits to pay for opportunities for Americans, as well as other reforms, including raising the minimum wage and allowing jobs to be moved more easily.
“Bottom line. It should never be cheaper for a corporation to hire a foreign guest worker than an American worker,” he said.
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Sanders said the “economic elite and political establishment” in the 1990s promised that the loss of blue-collar jobs due to free trade agreements would be offset by more white-collar IT jobs.
“Well, that turned out to be a big lie. Not only did the corporations export millions of blue-collar workers manufacturing jobs in ChinaMexico and other low-wage countries are now importing hundreds of thousands of low-wage guest workers from abroad to fill the white-collar tech jobs that are available,” he said.
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Sanders’ comments come days later President-elect Trumpwho spoke out against H-1B abuse during the 2016 campaign, said he has always supported the program.
“I have a lot of H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I’ve used it many times. It’s a great program,” he told the New York Post.
