Google, Microsoft, Tesla and other companies shedding jobs should not be allowed to hire on H-1B visa: Bernie Sanders

Senator Bernie Sanders introduced an amendment to the Laken Riley Act intended to reform the law H-1B visa program, arguing that it serves primarily to replace American workers with lower-paid foreign guest workers. He argues that these workers are often exploited, as are contract workers. “The main function of the H-1B program is not to hire the ‘best and brightest,’ but rather to replace well-paid American jobs with hundreds of thousands of lower-paid foreign guest workers who are often treated as contract workers. The cheaper it is to hire guest workers, the more money the multibillionaire owners of large corporations make,” Sanders, 83, said on the Senate floor earlier this week.
Sanders directly questioned Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s support for the H-1B program, questioning why Tesla laid off thousands of American workers while struggling to hire H-1B visa holders. He cited examples of Tesla hiring H-1B workers at much lower wages than typical for similar positions in the US. He claimed that the program is used to drastically reduce labor costs in corporations, rather than to fill real skills gaps.
“They are two sides of the same coin. If there really is a serious shortage of skilled tech workers in this country, as Musk has argued, why did Tesla lay off more than 7,500 American workers last year – including many programmers and engineers at its plant in Austin, Texas – while scrambling to hire thousands of H-guest workers? 1B?” he asked.
Corporations engaged in mass layoffs should not be allowed to replace American workers with guest workers. “Finally, this amendment would prevent corporations from treating H-1B guest workers as gig workers. Under current law, H-1B guest workers are often confined to lower-paying jobs, and bosses can revoke their visas if they complain about unsafe, unfair or illegal working conditions, he noted.
“This is unacceptable and must change. This fix would cause H-1B visas portable and allow guests to easily change jobs,” Sanders said.

The Sanders amendment proposes the following changes:

Increased H-1B Fees: Doubling the fees corporations pay to hire H-1B workers, generating an estimated $370 million annually in scholarships for American students in STEM fields.
Higher prevailing wages: Requiring corporations to pay H-1B workers at least the median local wage for their position, preventing undercutting the wages of American workers.
Protecting American Workers: Prohibiting companies from replacing laid-off American workers with H-1B visa holders.
Worker Protections: Portability of H-1B visas, allowing visitors to change jobs and avoid potentially exploitative working conditions.
Sanders criticized claims of a tech worker shortage, citing data showing that many American STEM graduates are unemployed. He emphasized that many top H-1B employers are outsourcing companies (“body shops”) that facilitate the outsourcing of work both domestically and abroad. He highlighted examples of H-1B workers who are paid significantly less than American workers in comparable jobs, such as programmers in Dallas and accountants in Houston.