The overwhelming majority of Americans instinctively grasp that illegal immigration undermines rule of law, hurts American workers and erodes our way of life.Now, more and more people are waking up to the disturbing reality that our sprawling web of legal immigration programs is just as bad, if not worse, than illegal immigration for many hardworking Americans.We need a complete overhaul of the legal migration system, which is enabling Big Tech companies and countless other American corporations to quietly replace American workers with visa-sponsored immigrants.That starts with confronting the H-1B program head-on.
H-1B has been marketed to Americans as a tightly enforced, rigorously vetted, merit-based system that admits only the world’s best and brightest for highly skilled jobs that few Americans can do.In reality, it is a loosely monitored system that allows cheap and often entry-level workers to occupy jobs that Americans would gladly fill.DEMAND TO END 'SCAM' VISA PROGRAM REPLACING AMERICAN WORKERS SURGES, WEST VIRGINIA CONGRESSMAN REVEALSThe numbers bear this out.
Last year, for example, the Department of Homeland Security reported that 83% of H-1B visas petitioned for between 2020 and 2024 were for entry and junior level employees with salaries set well below the local median wage.This March, the Department of Labor found that the minimum wages employers are required to pay H-1B workers are set $19,000 lower than what U.S.
workers earn in the same occupations and locations.A rally outside the Oakland County government complex in Pontiac, Mich., supports a proposal to require government contractors to use the federal E-Verify database to check the immigration status of job applicants.(im West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)The OPT program is arguably an even more egregious abuse of our immigration system.
It allows foreign students to stay in America for up to three years after they graduate college as long as they are working, or at least ...