Democrats say enforcing immigration laws and cutting back on visa programs would hurt the economy and make many goods and services more expensive. That’s because the lower wages typically paid to illegal immigrants and immigrants on temporary work visas have come to subsidize parts of the economy. Oftentimes, corporate America reaps the benefits. In this series, Immigrationomics, the Washington Examiner will look at where and how illegal immigrants are finding work, as well as how corporations take advantage of visa programs to import cheaper labor. Part 3 will look at foreign worker visa programs.
President Donald Trump’s reversal of his opposition to the H-1B visa has pitted Republicans against one another over whether immigrant workers complement or compete with native-born workers.
For decades, the United States has relied on foreign workers to fill millions of jobs at major U.S. companies and corporations, leading some to argue that importing foreign workers has harmed U.S. worker wages, as well as taken jobs away from Americans.
Trump’s view on the H-1B visa, in particular, has evolved from full opposition in 2016 to support for it in his second term, prompting some supporters to make a similar pivot, while others remain adamant that importing workers goes against “America, first.”
How foreign workers enter
A study by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, released this spring, analyzed how people immigrate legally to the U.S. In 2023, 170 million people expressed interest in moving to the U.S., and more than 32 million initiated the process.
To move to the U.S., one must be eligible through family sponsorship, employment, refugee, or the Diversity Visa Lottery program.
Of that figure, 24 million sought to enter on a worker visa, versus 8 million who sought to enter on a family visa pathway, and 360,000 who were seeking refugee status.
A total of 1 million foreigners were admitted, of which 260,000 were admitted as workers. For those seeking to enter the country for work, employers will typically sponsor the individual, but they can also sponsor themselves in select cases.
Employment-based admissions for permanent immigrants are capped at 140,000 per year, while temporary work-based visas are under a different category, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The popular H-1B visa for high-skilled workers is capped at 85,000 visas per year; however, recipients can renew their visa after three years to remain in the country and continue working.
Upside to immigrant workers
A 2019 study on immigration and wage distribution, published by Duke University Press, found that low-skilled and high-skilled immigrants had different effects on U.S. workers.
“An increased presence of low-skilled immigrants is associated with a small wage loss for natives at the bottom. Yet, the competition is more intense among low-skilled immigrants, who earn significantly lower wages as the number of their peers increases,” the researchers concluded.
“A similar pattern is not present between high-skilled immigrants and natives. Rather, the presence of foreign-born workers, whether high- or low-skilled, is associated with substantial wage gains for natives at the upper end,” the study stated.
U.S. business immigration attorneys at the Reddy Neumann Brown firm highlighted several benefits of relying on foreign high-skilled labor, specifically the H-1B visa, for Americans, including addressing skill shortages, creating jobs, spurring economic growth, and strengthening U.S. competitiveness.
The firm’s Felipe Jimenez wrote that Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Tesla founder Elon Musk all entered the United States on H-1B visas.
As far as the effect on wages, Jimenez added that “data suggests that they earn higher salaries than the median U.S. worker due to their specialized skills.”
“Many companies hiring H-1B professionals are required to pay prevailing wages, ensuring that they do not undercut American salaries,” the analysis stated.
It further encourages American students to pursue STEM education to compete with foreign workers, but this does not sit well with opponents.
Downside to immigrant workers
Alexander Frei, a former senior research associate for the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis, maintained that the way the government intended high-skilled visas to help the country has backfired.
“Despite efforts by the Department of Labor to ensure that H-1B workers do not undercut wages of comparable U.S. workers, the data show that, in certain occupations, H-1B holders earn significantly less than their American counterparts,” Frei wrote in an August report. “The current system falls short by allocating visas through a random lottery rather than targeting specific labor market needs. Leaving such a critical policy to chance fails to address the demands of specialty occupations and undermines the program’s original purpose — to fill genuine skill gaps in the U.S. workforce.”
HOW MILLIONS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS GOT JOBS IN THE U.S.
Instead, Frei recommended that the current lottery system be replaced with a wage-based selection process that would rank applications by the salary offered from highest to lowest.
“The proposed changes would prioritize higher-paid applicants and would discourage employers from offering below-market wages and ensure that H-1B visas are reserved for genuinely specialized and highly productive positions,” Frei said.