With an “America First” message of his own, progressive firebrand Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) waded into the debate over H-1B visas that is splitting MAGA Republicans.
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On his last day as chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) weighed in on the debate over H-1B visas that has led to a split between GOP-supporting tech bros, like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, and parts of the MAGA base.
This controversy began when Ramaswamy defended tech companies for hiring foreign-born and first-generation workers (a category that includes himself and Musk). Essentially, he was making the argument that Americans are dummies who should like nerds more than athletes and prom queens.
Ramaswamy might take issue with that characterization, but he said what he said; and, in any case, that is how his statement was perceived by America(ns) First supporters of Donald Trump.
And they did not like it.
Musk and Trump both sided with Ramaswamy, which makes sense because all of them are beneficiaries of H-1B visas, which allow companies to import “skilled” workers.
In his statement, Sanders explains why.
“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,” he stated. “The cheaper the labor they hire, the more money the billionaires make.”
Obviously, that’s not the part that Musk, Ramaswamy, and Trump like to say out loud, which makes this a politically savvy move on the part of Sanders.
For him, anything that not only divides MAGA but also highlights the greed of corporations and US oligarchs is a win-win proposition.
And Sanders certainly knows how to make sure that Trump’s supporters are aware with whom their hero is now aligned.
While he agrees that these visas can be a tool to recruit top-level talent to the US for jobs that are essential to the prosperity of the country, he also notes that this is not primarily how the system is currently (ab)used by tech companies and others.
“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, TX — while being approved to employ thousands of H-1B guest workers?” the senator asked.
Sanders also noted that Musk’s Tesla uses these visas for relatively junior jobs, and not the top 0.1 percent, as the billionaire had claimed.
In addition, he pointed out that H-1B visas are also given to dog trainers and English teachers.
“Can we really not find English teachers in America?” Sanders asked.
A valid question. And possibly one that MAGA supporters struggling to make ends meet may be asking themselves, which is what the left-wing senator seems to count on.
His statement certainly includes some of his own “America First” language.
He noted that, in the long term, the US must have the best-educated workforce in the world.
“And one way to help make that happen is to substantially increase the guest worker fees large corporations pay to fund scholarships, apprenticeships, and job training opportunities for American workers,” he stated. “Further, we must also significantly raise the minimum wage for guest workers, allow them to easily switch jobs, and make sure that corporations are required to aggressively recruit American workers first before they can hire workers from overseas.”
For his part, Musk vowed that he is willing to “go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend” after telling people to do something to their faces that only the greatest acrobats — i.e., highly skilled workers who may qualify for an H-1B visa — would be able to pull off.
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