Discrimination Against American Workers Disproves Labor Shortage Lie

Here at IAP, we have covered the media’s obsession with “labor shortages.” They never seem to know the national origin story of heinous criminals (they are always just "Maryland Man"), but when it comes to labor shortages, they claim to know the precise legal status of the workers and how necessary they are to keeping American industry growing. Where is the proof of this labor shortage outside of the word of employers with a vested financial interest in flooding the labor market? 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ledger, just recently, OpenAI had to settle claims alleging discrimination against American workers in the hiring process. And this is only the latest example demonstrating that American companies can’t find Americans to hire because they are actively breaking the law to avoid finding American workers. 

American Labor Discrimination Crisis

The labor shortage lie spread by the media, lobbyists, politicians, and employers is foundational to the justification for our current immigration system. The H-1B program was created in 1990 only after Congress was falsely warned of a labor shortage in critical, strategically important industries. Other temporary employment programs, like H-2A (agriculture), require attestation that the employer could not find American workers. Congress requires most employers seeking temporary foreign workers to submit labor certification with the Department of Labor (DOL), which is supposed to verify the employer is not offering a lower wage than they would for an American. Again, the idea is to ensure that American workers are not being replaced. 

This makes the issue of prevalent discrimination against American workers in the hiring process by employers seeking to hire temporary workers especially egregious. The US immigration system has the DOL helping the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) weed out employers looking to abuse the system and replace American workers. Yet that system has never been effective in protecting American labor from arbitrage. 

While trying to keep this brief, it is important to provide some links to create a record of discrimination:

• OpenAI settled, as seen above.
• The Register collected examples of settlements for discrimination “with companies found to be favoring temporary visa holders, including landscape biz Triple H Services LLC, Sinai Health System Inc, IT staffing firm AllianceIT, Challenger Sports Corporation, and Igloo Products Corp, among others,” and Amtex Systems Inc.
• The Register also reported that “[i]n June, the department resolved a discrimination finding with California-based IT staffing firm SpringShine Consulting, Inc. And in July, the department settled discrimination allegations with Technology Hub Inc., a Virginia-based IT recruiting business. In each of these cases, the recruiting firm is said to have solicited work only from non-US workers, such as those on H-1B visas.”
• The Department of Justice famously settled with Facebook/Meta in 2021 for discrimination against American workers. 
• It is not just law enforcement; a civil jury found company Cognizant guilty of discriminating against American workers. 
• Importantly, it is not just tech, as farmers have been busted for discriminating against American applicants as well. 

Discrimination Proves Employers Seek Cheap Labor

Unless immigration proponents want to claim that Americans are lazy and/or stupid, the only explanation for this persistent discrimination is that the foreign labor provides cheaper labor. As we have seen, there were 40 years of wage stagnation across the workforce. It is worth mentioning as well that some of this is attributed to wage theft, denial of overtime pay, collection of illegal recruitment and visa fees, and even slavery in the case of some foreign workers. One reason employers violate the law and discriminate against American workers is that they are seeking to target more vulnerable foreign victims who are dependent on the employer to remain in the country. 

These facts make the push for amnesty for illegal aliens and expansion of legal workers into the country so egregious. There is no labor shortage, even if the President’s donors say so. If there was a shortage, then why can we find legion examples of discrimination against American workers, wage stagnation across the country, and wage theft and other exploitation of foreign workers? And if Republicans think they need mass immigration for the campaign contributions and for “affordability,” think again. Joe Biden flooded the United States with millions of illegal alien workers, and prices were the only thing that rose as fast as the border numbers. Even though foreign workers drive down wages, they also increase consumer demand for things like housing and food just as they increase competition for jobs. Except, in the case of inflation, mass immigration increases consumer demand, which increases prices. 

So the President and Congress can keep trying to use foreign labor to drive down costs, but it is self-defeating. Meanwhile, they are creating mandatory unemployment for their own citizens. Nothing will be affordable for American voters if they are all unemployed.