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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is taking aim at 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 Republican Party.
“The primary function of the H-1B visa program and other guest worker initiatives is not to hire ‘the best and the brightest,’ but rather to replace high-paying American jobs with low-wage foreign indentured servants,” Sanders wrote in X “The cheaper the labor they hire, the more money billionaires make.”
He self-proclaimed democratic socialist has a history of opposing the program, which allows U.S. companies to hire foreign workers for skilled occupations. It is predominantly used by the tech industry, but has faced criticism primarily from the right for bringing 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, whom Trump tapped to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, defended the importance of foreign workers to technology companies.
“The reason I am in the United States along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, tesla, and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of the H1B visa,” Musk said in X.
That 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 attract cheaper labor, primarily from India, who are tied to their jobs by 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% of new 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 head the Department of Government Efficiency. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“If this program is really supposed to be about importing workers with very advanced degrees in science and technology, why are H-1B guest workers employed as dog trainers, masseuses, cooks and English teachers?” said. “Can’t we really find English teachers in the United States?”
Sanders admitted that there may be a labor shortage that could be filled with H-1B workersbut called for a substantial increase in guest worker fees to pay for opportunities for Americans, as well as other reforms, including raising minimum wages and the ability to easily change jobs.
“Simply put. It should never be cheaper for a corporation to hire a foreign worker than an American worker,” he said.
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Sanders said the “economic elite and 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 jobs in IT.
“Well, that turned out to be a big lie. Not only have corporations exported millions of workers manufacturing jobs to China“Mexico and other low-wage countries are now importing hundreds of thousands of low-paid 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 had criticized abuse of the H-1B visa during the 2016 campaign, said he has always supported the program.
“I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I have believed in the H-1B. I have used it many times. It is a great program,” he told the New York Post.