The H-1B visa program is designed to displace middle-class American workers and facilitate the exploitation of cheap foreign labor, and it has been sadly successful in both respects. Congress should eliminate it.

Big companies and their lobbyists in Washington have long sold the H-1B program as necessary to maintain the labor supply and a “modern” workforce. Decades after its implementation, the trail of this lie is littered with more displaced workers than anyone can count.

Recommended Stories

• Sunset the diversity visa lottery program
• The Founders did not believe in an open society or open borders
• Diversity is not our strength

Given historically low labor participation levels, the necessity of reconstituting domestic production and manufacturing capabilities, and the H-1B program’s known history of fraud and exploitation, it is past time for lawmakers to repeal the divisive and harmful program.

The societal, economic, and domestic workforce benefits of repeal far outweigh the merits of continuing to exploit cheap foreign labor. It is time for lawmakers to prioritize American workers, families, and communities. 

The H-1B visa program traces its origins to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which established a specialized visa for immigrants who possess “distinguished merit and ability” and who come to the United States to provide services of an “exceptional nature” temporarily. Importantly, the legislation specified that those eligible for the H-1B visa must also have no intention of abandoning their residency and citizenship status with their home country.  Over time, the program’s purpose transformed, and it seems every change created new and bigger loopholes that disadvantaged middle-class American workers.

There is no shortage of examples of U.S. companies exploiting foreign labor and discriminating against American workers through the H-1B program.

Sun Microsystems bragged in 1992 that it had employed programmers in Russia “at bargain prices.” In 1993, Microsoft turned down nearly 50 experienced American applicants to hire a young Malaysian national with less than two years of experience to help customers troubleshoot Windows. Hewlett-Packard was found to have employed dozens of Chinese, Russian, and Indian programmers through the H-1B program at a “fraction of the cost” of an average American worker.

Repeal of the H-1B visa program would end the single most brazen practice of government-sanctioned worker exploitation. The frequent abuse of foreign labor to avoid employing Americans cannot be denied, even by proponents of the H-1B program. A repeal of this program would not only bring that practice to a halt but also close a major statutory loophole for fraud that has allowed businesses to engage in corrupt practices with minimal punitive consequences.

Secondly, repealing the H-1B program would restore a healthier employer-employee relationship in companies that currently use such visas. In the current system, H-1B employees are modern-day serfs. The terms of their visas leave them unable to protect themselves from exploitative employers using them to reduce their corporate bottom line at the expense of American jobs and opportunities while disrespecting the basic human dignity of the H-1B employees themselves.

Importantly, eliminating the H-1B program will provide labor support to President Donald Trump’s concerted efforts to restore domestic production and manufacturing capability so that the U.S. is no longer reliant on foreign supply chains for essential goods and services.

The exploitation and fraud of large companies using and abusing H-1B visas eventually attracted scrutiny even from the mainstream press, generating reports by both the  New York Times and 60 Minutes outlining tech company abuse of the H-1B program to acquire cheap foreign labor to maximize profits and cut business expenses.

Unfortunately, such scrutiny did little to curb program abuses in subsequent decades.

In 2018, the Department of Labor found that Cloudwick Technologies in California exploited a dozen foreign workers, paying them nearly $200,000 below the “prevailing wage” provisions required by the H-1B program. Cloudwick had promised some Indian workers $8,300 per month, but paid them only $800.

In 2021, a report by the Economic Policy Institute revealed that Hindustan Computers Limited, one of India’s largest outsourcing firms and the eighth-largest H-1B employer, exploited its own H-1B employees out of nearly $95 million. HCL has received more than 30,000 H-1B visas since 2009, facilitating the displacement of thousands of American workers to benefit large companies inside the U.S. Among HCL’s many beneficiaries are Google, Boeing, and Merck.

Meta settled separate lawsuits from the Departments of Justice and Labor in the fall of 2021 over charges that the company discriminated against American workers in favor of hiring cheaper, foreign employees. This resulted in fines of $14.2 million in what the federal government deemed the “largest fine and monetary reward” recovered in the “35-year history of the INA’s anti-discrimination provision.”

BECOMING AN AMERICAN: HOW TO FIX THE LEGAL IMMIGRATION SYSTEM

For perspective, the fine amounted to roughly 0.02% of Meta’s total revenue, which stood at $86 billion at the time. For major companies like Facebook, the allure of the H-1B program’s inherently corrupt design is far more appealing than whatever minimal deterrence federal officials can impose through fines that don’t even amount to a rounding error in exploitative companies’ bottom lines.

Part of putting America first is, of course, putting American workers first. The H-1B visa puts Americans last, and for that it should die the death of a congressional repeal — the sooner the better.

Ken Cuccinelli is a Senior Fellow for Homeland Security and Immigration for the Center for Renewing America. He most recently served as acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security and acting Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services during the first Trump administration.