Not only are many American businesses deliberately offering job openings to foreign workers, but some companies are actually laying off their American employees in order to hire H-1B visa holders, according to Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.).
“Programs like H-1B, L-1, F-1, and OPT are displacing U.S. workers, suppressing wages, and hollowing out our middle class. Fraud and abuse are rampant. American workers are losing, so who's winning? Answer: The ‘Visa Cartel’,” Schmitt declared in an X thread on May 13.
He explained how 82% of the H-1B workers brought in to replace thousands of laid-off American tech workers received below-median wage salaries, indicating the companies were trying to save money with cheaper foreign labor — and exploding the myth of such workers only taking jobs Americans won’t. Americans are subsidizing AI training in India to help train their own replacements, however. Networks and shell companies run a massive business trafficking foreign labor. Businessmen and scammers treat both Americans and foreign workers “like cattle.”
For those of us Americans who are struggling to find jobs, part of the problem is that companies are still trying to hire foreigners, including for many entry-level positions. And the Trump administration adding a high fee to the visas simply means that individuals associated with corrupt governments and companies overseas, especially China and India, will continue to come into the U.S.
Here's an example, all occurring in one office building.
— Senator Eric Schmitt (@SenEricSchmitt) May 13, 2026
One company recruits overseas, another files visa petitions, another provides placement, another does payroll.
What looks like a list of tenants, is in reality, a vertically integrated labor pipeline. pic.twitter.com/HJsTltC5t1
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Schmitt explained, “Little-known L-1 visas have become a big business for the Visa Cartel. Foreign firms set up sham ‘new offices,’ transfer managers, and BYPASS wage floors or caps. Applications have grown sharply in recent years. Yet the loopholes remain wide open.”
“F-1 visas are a silent job killer too," he added. "Foreign students (India accounted for almost half) get taxpayer-subsidized work permits, corporations get no payroll taxes or wage rules. They flow into H-1B, then green cards, while U.S. grads with debt compete against cheaper labor.”
Let’s look at a couple of concrete examples. The University of Michigan is currently offering a position in LSA Web Services specifically for H-1B holders for three years at an annual salary of $127,500. As for the University of Minnesota, it offered more than 250 H-1B positions last year, including assistant professor positions that pay more than $200,000 annually. Campus Reform stated that the university is paying much more to foreign employees than to American employees, as positions that go well over the $200,000 threshold for H-1B visa holders are advertised at between $51,000 and $74,000 starting salary for American applicants. So while some companies want the foreigners in order to pay them less, others appear to be paying the foreigners more. But the universities might still be saving on benefits and fewer wage rules.
Even more than academia, tech companies appear to be major offenders. I personally know American engineers who were having a hard time finding or keeping jobs, and now I understand why. “Big Tech contractors have exposed Indian visa holders sharing confidential interview questions with applicants from India,” Schmitt accused the corrupt corporations. “Big Tech quietly locks out Americans by routing jobs through these pipelines. Merit is now replaced by ethnic favoritism.”
The "Visa Cartel" has its own “Visa Temple” in Hyderabad, which sees thousands of Indians circling altars and getting passports blessed for U.S. work visas.
— Senator Eric Schmitt (@SenEricSchmitt) May 13, 2026
American workers shouldn’t have to compete against a system this gamed. pic.twitter.com/k7wSlECTJ6
It is not always a scam on the part of the foreign workers themselves, who are desperate for a better life and willing to let major companies take advantage of them. But in the long run, it is American workers who lose American jobs.
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