Key Trump ally and junior senator from Missouri, Eric Schmitt, blamed the H1-B visa program and foreign workers for job losses
Key Trump ally and junior senator from Missouri, Eric Schmitt, blamed the H1-B visa program and foreign workers for job losses in the US. In a fiery statement on Ryan James Girdusky’s podcast, the Republican further added that the American people are ‘being lied to’ and foreign workers are ‘more compliant’ and cheaper.
Schmitt’s claims were made approximately a month after the Trump administration initiated enhanced screening of H-1B and its dependent H-4 visa applicants, including social media profile checks for applicants. The Homeland Security Department recently announced that it is pausing visa processing for 75 countries, including key allies.
The Missouri senator said: “[Americans have been told] that the H-1B applicants are being brought in because there aren’t enough people present in the US to take up the kind of jobs that they do, that’s a lie.”
The December job report revealed that employers added just 50,000 jobs, nearly unchanged from a downwardly revised figure of 56,000 in November. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate slipped to 4.4%, its first decline since June, from 4.5% in November.
“When you see companies like Microsoft laying off thousands of workers and replacing them with H-1B applicants (foreign workers), the only difference is – foreign workers are more compliant. They are here as guests and can be sent away if they’re not compliant and they’re cheaper,” Schmitt said.
Schmitt said that the H-1B program has been widely abused, and the OPT (Optional Practical Training) work authorisation for F-1 international students are basically ‘visa mills’.
“US universities benefit because these students pay the full fee. They come in and then they’re able to work on that visa for a year or two…the employer doesn’t have to taxes but [this] displaces American students,” he added.
Only earlier this moth, Schmitt had spoken about introducing a bill against denaturalisation. “If you come to our country, take our citizenship oath, and then proceed to commit fraud or other serious felonies, you don’t deserve to be an American. I’m introducing legislation to revoke their citizenship and send them home,” he wrote on X, platform formerly known as Twitter.
The article originally appeared on Hindustan Times
