In a move to help American workers, the Trump Administration is calling on companies to pay 100,000 a year for H-1B visas, which allow them to import foreign workers. The companies typically claim that they can’t find find qualified Americans to fill their job openings.
The reality is that they pass over qualified Americans for employment because they can pay the foreigners less. As proof, there are many Americans with degrees in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) who have had to take jobs in other fields, even while the companies import foreign STEM workers on H-!B visas.
Also, in many cases the companies replace the U.S. workers they have with H-1B foreigners, while requiring the Americans to train their replacements. (If they refuse they lose their severance pay.) It’s hard to maintain that the H-1B holders are more qualified when they need the Americans to teach them how to do the jobs.
The administration’s directive will give the companies incentive to hire and retain Americans. Commenting on this policy, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated, “If you’re going to train somebody, you’re going to train one of the recent graduates from one of the great universities across our land. Train Americans. Stop bringing in people to take our jobs.”
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