‘Elon Musk is wrong’: A Democratic senator roasts Elon Musk over H-1B visa debate
Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders has weighed in on the H-1B visa debate raging within MAGA and denounced Elon Musk’s praise of the program.
The H-1B visa program allows U.S. companies to hire foreign workers in specialized fields, such as STEM. It’s supposed to help alleviate these areas’ potential labor and talent shortages. However, Americans have scrutinized the program. Some Democrats and Republicans are opposed to the current system, though for vastly different reasons. For Republicans, opposition to H-1B goes hand-in-hand with their anti-immigration and “America first” stances. Far-right commentators like Laura Loomer, who has described herself as a “proud Islamophobe,” are staunchly against the program because they want to reduce all immigration, whether legal or illegal and believe that immigrants are stealing jobs from Americans.
Given Musk’s support of MAGA and desire to be Donald Trump’s political enforcer, it was surprising when he suddenly defended the H-1B program following Loomer’s criticism. Ignoring Trump’s “America first” rhetoric, Musk painted the H-1B program in a positive light, claiming it aids with the “permanent shortage in excellent engineering talent” and ensures the hiring of the best talent. However, Sanders has now joined the conversation and shot down Musk’s argument, offering more thoughtful criticism of the program than the anti-immigration crowd.
Sen. Bernie Sanders flames Elon Musk’s H-1B stance
Sanders recently released a statement criticizing Musk’s stance in the H-1B debate. His major problem with the billionaire’s stance is that he does not paint an accurate portrait of the program. Musk’s glowing assessment of the H-1B program as something that alleviates labor shortages and is wholly focused on hiring “the best” is, perhaps, what the program should be in theory, but it simply isn’t the reality.
Sanders posted his statement on X with the caption, “Elon Musk is wrong.” He pointed out that the program isn’t about hiring the best but replacing “good-paying American jobs with low-wage indentured servants from abroad.” In his statement, he scrutinizes claims about the alleged labor shortage, providing statistics that show that the “top 30 corporations” that participated in the H-1B shortage laid off an estimated 85,000 American workers while hiring over 34,000 temporary H-1B employees. He claims studies show that as much as 33% of all new Information Technology jobs are filled with H-1B workers despite numerous Americans with specialized degrees struggling with unemployment.
Then, Sanders turned his attention to Tesla. The Senator asked why the company laid off 7,500 American workers if it was experiencing such a labor shortage. Additionally, if Musk truly is employing the “best,” why are many of his H-1B workers in positions such as “associate” engineers or accountants for as little as $58,000 a year? Sanders suggests that corporations are really using the H-1B program because it’s “cheaper” to hire someone from overseas to take advantage of than to hire an American worker. The Senator doesn’t wholly deny that there are shortages and needs of specialized talent in the workforce, but, to him, a better solution seems to be to ensure the country has an education system capable of providing the talent it needs.
He’s not opposed to corporations hiring H-1B workers when necessary but says it should be a requirement for these companies to “aggressively” recruit Americans before looking overseas. Additionally, he suggested bettering temporary workers’ pay and allowing them to switch jobs easily to avoid abuse. While there is much debate surrounding how severe the labor shortage or discrepancy in H-1B workers’ and Americans’ pay is, Sanders outlines a very logical plan of reform to ensure that billionaires cannot abuse the program and that the program does what it was intended to rather than hurting both American and H-1B workers for the sake of the bottom line.
Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com
