Sen. Eric Schmitt Echoes Bernie Sanders With Attack on Foreign Worker Program
The Republican and the socialist agree: Free trade and H-1B visas are bad news.
Republicans increasingly seem to be taking a page from Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I–Vt.) policy playbook. Many are not only embracing economic policies that the Vermont progressive has long advocated for, like government ownership of a private company, but also adopting Sanders' populist views on immigration.
On Wednesday, during a speech at the National Conservatism Conference, Sen. Eric Schmitt (R–Mo.) argued that providing avenues for foreigners to work in the United States, like the H-1B visa program—which allows employers to hire educated non-immigrant workers in specialty occupations—is detrimental to Americans. Rather than "keep[ing] America globally competitive" by "attracting the truly exceptional few," Schmitt asserted that programs like H-1B have "instead…imported a vast new labor force from abroad. Not to fill jobs Americans can or won't do, but to fill jobs Americans can [do]."
In Schmitt's view, the consequence of allowing foreigners to live and work in the United States has "undercut American wages, replaced American workers," and "funneled millions of foreign nationals to take the jobs, salaries, and futures that should belong to our own children." The H-1B visa program, he continued, "is kneecapping white collar workers right before our eyes."
These are bold statements condemning a program that is already one of the most restrictive in the U.S. immigration system, allowing for only 85,000 visas a year. Strict eligibility criteria, fees totalling as much as $8,500 (excluding lawyers' fees), and a waiting period of at least seven months to receive an H-1B visa mean "employers typically only hire H-1B workers for particularly high-value positions," according to David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute. Ongoing restrictions once an H-1B visa is granted—which are generally only valid for up to six years total, but can be extended under certain circumstances, and do not allow H-1B workers to change jobs without permission or go unemployed for more than 60 days—can discourage individuals from seeking this kind of visa.
Regardless, demand for the visa far outpaces its availability. Congress, which can set the visa cap annually, hasn't changed the current number of H-1B visas available since FY 2005. When the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services receives more registrations than the number of visas available—which has happened every year since FY 2004—a lottery system is used to randomly select eligible registrants to be granted the H-1B visa. In May, Forbes reported that 343,981 registrations were submitted for FY 2026, amounting to a rejection rate of 65 percent. This is even after the odds of selection were increased this year due to 27 percent fewer total registrations than in FY 2025. But the low visa cap and other immigration law restrictions mean employers are forced to consider alternatives, including offshoring, to acquire the talent they need, which could result in fewer jobs for U.S. workers as more jobs leave the country.
The outsized demand for H-1B visas leads many to argue that the program should be expanded to fully capture the potential tens of billions of dollars that highly skilled foreign workers could bring to the economy. Close to 70 percent of H-1B visa holders have a master's degree or higher, and 80 percent work in computer, math, and engineering fields. Rather than outcompete Americans in Schmitt's imaginary zero-sum labor game, immigrant and H-1B visa workers actually complement and fill gaps in U.S. workers' existing skill sets. Because immigrant workers are available for hire within the U.S. labor market, companies can more easily expand U.S.-based operations rather than move abroad. This growth, in turn, increases employment opportunities for all American workers.
Still, the benefits of the H-1B program are of little consequence to Schmitt, who told his audience to question whether "the various forms of legal immigration today" are "good for our country." With a presidential administration that is attempting to implement a mass deportation campaign, it appears that some Republicans not only want to eliminate illegal immigration, but legal immigration as well.
