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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is targeting the controversial H-1B visa program, arguing that it replaces “high-paying American jobs with low-wage foreign indentured servants,” just as the program is at the center of a debate within the Party republican
“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-wage indentured servants from the foreign,” Sanders wrote to X. “The cheaper the labor they hire, the more money the billionaires make.”
The self-styled democratic socialist has a history of opposing the program, which allows American companies to hire foreign workers for skilled occupations. It is mainly used by the tech industry, but has faced criticism mainly from the right because it brings in cheap labor from abroad 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 recently became part of an intra-republican debate when Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who has been tapped by Trump to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, defended the importance of foreign workers to tech companies.
“The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, tesla, and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B,” Musk told X.
That reopened a rift among those on the right over the program and whether it is used to attract top talent or whether it is used by companies to bring in cheaper labor, mainly from India, that are tied to the your work for the visa.
Sanders cited statistics to show that in 2022 and 2023, the top 30 corporations that used the program laid off more than 85,000 American workers, while hiring more than 34,000 H-1B workers, and that 33 percent of the new positions of IT jobs are filled by foreign guest workers. He also pointed to layoffs at Tesla, one of Musk’s companies.
Elon Musk, pictured, and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the Department of Government Efficiency. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“If this program is supposed to really be about importing workers with very advanced degrees in science and technology, why are H-1B guest workers being used as dog trainers, massage therapists, cooks and teachers English?” he said “Can’t we really find English teachers in America?”
Sanders admitted there may be a labor shortage that could be filled H-1B workersbut he called for a substantial increase in guest worker fees in order to pay for opportunities for Americans, as well as other reforms such as an increase in minimum wages and the ability to move jobs easily.
“In short. 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 the political establishment” promised in the 1990s 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. It’s not just corporations that have exported millions of blue collar workers manufacturing jobs in chinaMexico and other low-wage countries are now importing hundreds of thousands of poorly paid guest workers from abroad to fill available white-collar tech jobs,” he said.
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Sanders’ comments come days later President-elect Trumpwho had denounced H-1B abuse during the 2016 campaign, said he has always supported the program.
“I have a lot of H-1B visas in my properties. I’ve believed in H-1B. I’ve used it many times. It’s a great program,” he told the New York Post.
