WASHINGTON, D.C. —
By John Fredericks
Turn up the volume.The thieving, conniving Wall Street gangster-banksters are at it again.This time, they’re coming for your kids’ futures.And — shocker! — they have their reliable allies in the big-business lobbying establishment ready to defend the cheap-labor machine.
Your kid got the degree. Your kid studied computer science, engineering, or technology.
Your kid did everything America told him/her to do: work hard, study hard, go to college, develop a valuable skill, and build a career.
Maybe your child walked away carrying a mountain of student-loan debt.
And now Corporate America wants them competing against a global pipeline of lower-cost labor so some fat cat can squeeze another fraction of a point out of the quarterly numbers.
That is the H-1B fight. President Donald Trump has now turned up the heat.
I’m turning up the volume.
His September 18 executive order directs federal agencies reviewing H-1B matters to consider whether sponsoring employers laid off similarly situated American workers during the previous year — or are planning future layoffs that would negatively affect those workers.
Vice President JD Vance summarized the administration’s position perfectly:
“We’re not going to let you lay off American workers so you can replace them with cheap foreign labor.”
But I say: why stop there?
This crackdown is welcome, but the debate is much bigger than one executive order or one visa application.
For decades, our economic establishment has too often put the priorities of multinational corporations, outsourcing operations, and the Wall Street profit machine ahead of American workers.
And now American graduates are paying the price.
The game isn’t difficult to understand. Scour the globe for lower-cost labor.
Cut labor expenses. Increase margins. Reward shareholders.
Then, tell the 22-year-old American who did everything we asked him to do: Sorry. You cost too much. Eat cake.
Every time somebody threatens this arrangement, the corporate lobbying establishment in their $10,000 Italian suits and $25,000 Rolex Watches rushes to Washington, warning that the American economy supposedly cannot function without continually importing workers.
We are done buying into their Chicken-Little cheap labor ruse.
The Trump administration says it has evidence of serious abuse.
The White House says certain IT staffing and outsourcing firms have used H-1B workers to undercut wages and displace American employees. The Administration also argues that the availability of cheaper H-1B labor can place downward pressure on domestic salaries and make employment more difficult for some recent American STEM graduates.
Then look what happened when Trump changed the incentives.
According to the White House, combined H-1B registrations from the largest IT staffing and outsourcing firms plunged from 24,946 to 2,055. That is a 92 percent collapse.
The administration also says the FY 2027 pool shifted toward higher-skilled and higher-paid workers: the share of registrants with at least a U.S. master’s degree increased, while selections became more concentrated in the two highest wage levels.
You know what that tells me? When Washington changes the incentives, corporate behavior changes.
Now, I want every CEO asking Washington for H-1B workers to answer some very simple questions:
Did you look for an American first? Did you recruit American graduates? Did you offer training? Did you raise the salary enough to attract qualified American workers?
Did you recently lay off Americans doing comparable jobs?
Or did somebody sitting in an executive suite simply decide it would be cheaper to look somewhere else?
For decades, this swap and trade scheme from the Wall Street–Chamber-of-Commerce unholy cabal has done more to depress wages of American workers than any recession could do.
First, they shipped our jobs overseas.
Then, when Trump’s tariffs put an end to that 40-year scam, they shifted to importing those low-wage workers here.
My position is simple: American workers should get the first shot at American jobs. Our sons and daughters want careers.
They want homes. They want families.
They want the economic independence that previous generations were promised if they worked hard and developed useful skills.
What they should not get is a government-created system that leaves them wondering whether they must compete against the lowest labor cost Corporate America can locate anywhere on planet Earth.
Defenders of H-1B argue that America benefits from access to extraordinary foreign talent and that companies sometimes need specialized skills.
Fine. Then prove the need. Show us the job. Show us the salary. Show us the recruiting effort. Show us why an American could not reasonably fill it.
Show us you didn’t just fire somebody capable of doing it.
And show us this isn’t simply an exercise in obtaining cheaper labor.
Because I am finished watching American workers be told they must compete against the entire world while enormous corporations enjoy every conceivable advantage.
Wall Street gets its margins. The outsourcing companies get their contracts. The lobbying industry gets its checks.
And America’s kids get two words: screw you.
Trump has begun the crackdown.
Now America should have the larger debate: should the H-1B system continue in anything resembling its current form, and if it survives, how narrowly should it be limited to genuinely exceptional skills?
This country was not created to provide the cheapest possible workforce to the largest corporations on Earth.
America’s economic system should work for Americans, too. Our kids first. Our workers first. Our wages first. Our country first.
So turn up the volume.
This fight is just getting started.