Teamsters President: H-1B Visas Displace American Workers

Plus: One Big, Beautiful Bill

Hi BRIGHT readers! It’s going to be a short week for me because I’ll be taking a break to recover from surgery on Thursday. Never fear — I’ll have a few guest posts sprinkled here and there, including a familiar face for old school BRIGHT readers 😉

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In Today’s BRIGHT

Teamsters President: H-1B Visas Displace American Workers
One Big, Beautiful Bill
The Cost of Deportation
More Weekend Reads
A Case of the Mondays

Teamsters President: H-1B Visas Displace American Workers

Breitbart reported that Teamsters Union President Sean O’Brien criticized the H-1B visa program for displacing American workers and enabling billionaire corporations to exploit foreign labor. Citing Senator Bernie Sanders, O’Brien agreed that the program serves as an outsourcing tool rather than promoting skilled talent.

From Breitbart:

“The main 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 good-paying American jobs with low-wage indentured servants from abroad.”

The cheaper the labor they hire, the more money the billionaires make,” Sanders wrote:

If there is really a shortage of skilled tech workers in America, why did Tesla lay-off over 7,500 American workers this year – including many software developers and engineers at its factory in Austin, Texas – while being approved to employ thousands of H-1B guest workers? [Emphasis added]

In response, O’Brien took to X and said he “100%” agreed with Sanders.

“The H-1B guest worker visa program displaces U.S. workers and allows billionaire tech employers to exploit foreign workers,” O’Brien wrote.

Research published in the Journal of Business Ethics showed H-1B workers are paid 10% less than Americans in equivalent roles, making it a cost-saving mechanism for many Fortune 500 companies. Breitbart noted, “There are about 650,000 H-1B visa foreign workers in the United States at any given moment.”

While I’m not a fan of starting the year with infighting amongst the winning team, it’s clear there is reform needed for the H-1B program and Republicans are in a better position to make that happen.