On Sept. 18, the White House issued a fact sheet announcing an executive order renewing the $100,000 fee President Donald Trump first imposed on all newly issued H-1B visas last September.
That fee was initially upheld by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., and collected for months, but a federal judge in Massachusetts later reached the opposite conclusion, halting its collection.
Given that the fact sheet didn’t really change anything as the White House waits for an appeal of the second judge’s ruling, it is not terribly surprising that it caused little reaction when it was issued.
One week later, however, Vice President JD Vance posted the very same fact sheet to X, adding, “Our message to corporate America is simple: We’re not going to let you lay off American workers so you can replace them with cheap foreign labor.”
And libertarians lost their minds.
“Wrong. Hiring decisions should be made by employers, not politicians,” wrote consultant Vince Ginn.
“With all due respect, Mr. Vice President @JDVance, businesses must be free to hire and fire as they need, subject to the demands of the rule of law,” wrote American Institute for Economic Research President Samuel Gregg.
And the Mercatus Center’s Veronique de Rugy fretted, “There is something terrifying about politicians who don’t seem to understand that the private sector is private. Companies do not exist to carry out the government’s preferred labor policy.”
These are all odd responses, since the H-1B program is not a labor regulation restricting which Americans companies can hire. It is an immigration program designed to allow only the most talented workers in the world into the United States to help American companies grow.
If a company wants to hire talented foreigners in foreign countries, it is free to do so. What companies are not allowed to do, and never have been, is fire all their American workers here in the U.S. and then import cheap foreign workers at half the salary.
Contra de Rugy, what is so terrifying is that libertarians don’t seem to understand that immigration policy is set by the people through their elected government, not by unelected corporations.
There is no doubt that an immigration program that admitted only the most talented people in the world would be a net benefit to the U.S. But these would have to be immensely talented people whose skills were worth far more than a measly $100,000. Instead, what the H-1B program has become is a way for information technology staffing firms to make millions by replacing mid-level American programmers with cheap foreign labor. That may help Silicon Valley billionaires, but it doesn’t help average Americans.
CONN CARROLL: THE INTERNET ISN’T KILLING GOD
Whether the issue is gambling apps, marijuana, pornography, or, in this case, immigration, libertarians are simply incapable of even comprehending what is needed to create and sustain a high-trust civil society and a functioning market.
Libertarians may see only markets and individuals, but conservatives see communities and nations. Nations need borders and communities to survive, and communities need to be protected from gambling, drugs, and degeneracy to thrive. This is why there never has been, and never will be, a libertarian nation.