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The Squeeze on American Workers

Why Americans Lose Jobs to Foreign Workers

Let’s dispense with the illusions from the start. The immigration debate is drowning in deliberately soft, misleading language-“undocumented immigrants,” “common-sense solutions,” “path to citizenship,” “comprehensive reform”-all crafted to mask what is really happening. Peel those euphemisms away and the raw truth stands exposed: we are dealing with large-scale amnesty disguised as humanitarianism and unchecked mass importation of foreign labor disguised as economic necessity. The combined effect is to convert the American labor market into a worldwide commodity pool where U.S. citizens are routinely outbid, displaced, and marginalized in the very economy their forebears built.

This is not speculation or partisan spin. It is documented fact, most powerfully illustrated by the recent X thread from investigative journalist @amandalouise416. Her post slices through decades of industry propaganda with surgical precision:

For years, Americans were told we couldn’t produce enough STEM talent.

Now it’s layoffs with visas still flowing. The data proves there was never a labor shortage.

There was systemic dependence on cheaper labor and Americans are paying the price.

The accompanying chart is a damning indictment. Between 2019 and 2024, cumulative foreign worker additions through H-1B visa approvals, OPT, STEM OPT extensions, and CPT reached approximately 3.1 million. During that same period, net new U.S. STEM jobs created hovered around 400,000 in the most conservative reading of the data, or perhaps 1.1 million if one applies the broadest possible BLS methodology. That is not evidence of a domestic talent shortage. That is evidence of an engineered oversupply of imported labor swamping available American supply.

State-Level Breakdowns Make the Imbalance Undeniable

In California-America’s tech epicenter-roughly 1.2 million STEM jobs were added over the period, yet H-1B labor condition application requests soared to nearly 3.8 million. Texas followed a similar pattern: about 0.6 million STEM jobs created versus 1.5 million H-1B requests. In New York and New Jersey, STEM employment grew by a modest +30,000 and +50,000 respectively, while H-1B additions approached 150,000 in each state-and non-STEM employment remained flat or declined.

When these figures are cross-checked against official BLS employment surveys, USCIS approval statistics, and DOL labor certification data, the imbalance is confirmed: total H-1B approvals (including extensions and continuations) hit 2.4–2.5 million over those years, with hundreds of thousands more flowing through OPT and related programs. Foreign visas continued unabated even as American tech workers received layoff notices in wave after wave.

No Genuine Shortage – Only Manufactured Scarcity

The inescapable conclusion: there is no genuine, economy-wide shortage of qualified American STEM and IT professionals. The perennial “shortage” narrative peddled by industry lobbies and compliant media is a fabrication designed to rationalize the importation of cheaper foreign workers rather than paying competitive market wages to Americans or investing seriously in domestic training and upskilling.

Real total compensation for STEM workers-adjusted for inflation-declined by roughly 7 percent from 2019 to 2023, even as foreign inflows accelerated. Basic supply-and-demand logic dictates that a true labor shortage would trigger sharp wage increases to draw more domestic talent into the field. We see the opposite: wages stagnating or eroding. That single fact demolishes the shortage myth.

Foreign Productivity Arguments Are Irrelevant Distractions

I have no patience for diversionary arguments about the supposed productivity or innovation benefits brought by foreign workers. Those claims are irrelevant to the core issue. Whether a 2015 academic paper asserted that H-1B inflows accounted for 30–50 percent of U.S. total factor productivity growth between 1990 and 2010 is beside the point.

We are confronting today’s reality: widespread tech-sector layoffs, persistent real-wage stagnation in key occupations, ongoing offshoring pressures, and millions of American citizens holding STEM degrees who stand ready to fill roles but are routinely bypassed in favor of lower-cost foreign imports. The discussion must stay ruthlessly focused on American workers and their rightful claim to compete on fair terms in their own national economy.

The Mechanism: A Global Labor Auction

The operational mechanism is brutally simple. H-1B visa approvals-including extensions-routinely exceed 400,000 per fiscal year, saturating mid-level and entry-level positions across software development, data analysis, engineering support, and related fields.

By contrast, O-1 visas-reserved for individuals demonstrating truly extraordinary, sustained national or international acclaim in their field-are issued in far smaller numbers, roughly 20,000–30,000 annually, and only after meeting an exceptionally high evidentiary bar. That narrow, elite-focused approach is the appropriate model: admit genuine world-class talent without routine displacement of ordinary American professionals.

The existing system does precisely the reverse. It establishes a global labor auction in which U.S. citizens are undercut every time an overseas candidate accepts a lower salary or less demanding benefits package.

The Enablers: Chamber of Commerce and Amnesty Bills

The institutional architects and defenders of this arrangement operate without shame. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce functions, in practice, as an open-borders lobby on labor-market issues. In October 2025 they filed federal suit against the Trump administration’s $100,000 surcharge on new H-1B petitions, branding the fee “cost-prohibitive” and insisting it would cripple American businesses by restricting access to foreign workers.

In their own court pleadings they quietly downgraded the statutory purpose of the program from attracting the “best and brightest” to merely securing “highly skilled” labor-effectively conceding that H-1B is now routinely used to fill abundant, non-elite positions rather than genuine scarcities.

The Chamber also publicly endorses the DIGNITY Act of 2025 as a “constructive step forward,” despite the bill’s core provision granting renewable legal work status and deportation protection to millions of pre-2020 illegal entrants under the guise of an “earned” Dignity Program. No formal citizenship path exists on paper for most participants, but indefinite lawful presence and employment authorization amount to de facto amnesty by another name.

Simpson-Mazzoli Redux

This pattern is Simpson-Mazzoli redux. The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act promised tough employer sanctions and enhanced border enforcement in exchange for legalizing roughly three million illegal aliens. Enforcement proved toothless, sanctions were almost never imposed, and illegal immigration surged in the following decades precisely because the amnesty created a powerful pull factor for future entrants.

The DIGNITY Act recycles the identical formula: nationwide E-Verify requirements and border infrastructure rhetoric serve as political cover, while the legalization component integrates millions more individuals into the U.S. workforce and sends an unmistakable signal to would-be crossers-wait long enough and relief will arrive.

No Backdoor Amnesty

In my earlier column “No Backdoor Amnesty,” I laid bare the mechanics of these so-called comprehensive packages. They always follow the same sequence: concede enforcement principles in theory while embedding “humane” carve-outs in practice, thereby opening the gateway to chain migration, renewed surges, and perpetual labor-market flooding.

The euphemisms function as grease for the machinery: “earned legal status” translates to amnesty, “path forward” translates to permanence, “comprehensive” translates to capitulation.

Conclusion: Time to Fight Back

The unvarnished reality stands clear: the current immigration and visa regime is not malfunctioning by accident. It is deliberately structured to facilitate foreign replacement of American workers. No authentic shortages exist-only corporate-orchestrated displacement enabled by compliant policy. The @amandalouise416 thread, the persistent wage stagnation, the recurring amnesty traps, the Chamber’s aggressive lobbying-all converge on the same verdict.

The time for half-measures and polite compromise has passed. Enforce narrow, elite-only admissions through O-1 visas and dismantle the mass H-1B pipeline. Reject every amnesty-laden bill masquerading as reform. Place American workers first-unapologetically, uncompromisingly.

The weasel words have been stripped away. The squeeze is undeniable. It is past time to fight-vigorously and without retreat-for the citizens who actually built and sustain this nation.

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James K. Bishop

James K. Bishop is a conservative writer and raconteur hailing from Texas, known for his incisive and often provocative takes on political and cultural issues. With a staunch commitment to originalist constitutional principles, he emphasizes limited government, individual liberties, and traditional American values. Active on X under the handle @James_K_Bishop, he frequently engages his audience with sharp critiques of progressive policies, media narratives, and overreaches by the federal government. His style is direct, often laced with humor and wit, which resonates strongly with his conservative followers.