“I believe that if you graduate from college, you should automatically get a green card as part of your diploma and be able to stay in this country.”
That’s a globalist neoliberal thing to say, right?
No. That was one of former President Donald Trump’s most recent comments on immigration. Far from the meritocratic immigration system conservatives want, Trump’s proposal has sparked huge controversy, especially on the right. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) tweeted “No,” then deleted the post. Even Libertarian Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) denounced the idea, saying, “This is That’s not it!”
The labor market doesn’t care if super-based Mexican Catholics, Palestinian Hamas supporters, or Chinese Communists enter the labor pool. Any big shock of foreign labor will affect wages in the United States. In fact, the lobby for the big tech companies openly admits that immigration is necessary to keep wages down.
By way of background, a green card, unlike a temporary H work visa or F student visa, grants immigrants permanent residence in the U.S. Foreign nationals often use these temporary visas as a stepping stone to a green card and permanent residence in the U.S. Many H-1B visa holders are attempting to transition to a green card, which requires employer sponsorship.
“All InDuring a segment on People, a business and technology podcast hosted by four Silicon Valley venture capitalists, where one of the hosts urged tech industry leaders to “improve our ability to attract the best and brightest talent from around the world to America,” President Trump vowed to issue green cards to foreigners in his second term.
Such policies would not only encourage universities to charge exorbitant tuition fees to international students, but also fulfill big tech companies’ dreams of cheap labor.
“The story of tying a green card to a diploma is wrong because it’s trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist: there is no shortage of American-born STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) workers,” said Kevin Lin, executive director of the Institute for Sound Public Policy. “The reason nearly three-quarters of American STEM graduates aren’t working in STEM fields is because wages have fallen over the past 20 years as employers have disrupted the labor market by letting in mass immigrants.”
More labor = lower wages. This isn’t hard
Introductory economics textbooks teach that, other things being equal, an increase in supply leads to an increase in price. That is, increasing the supply of skilled labor will lower the price (wages) of labor, lowering input prices for firms. Even if the demand for skilled labor eventually increases, perhaps because immigrants start businesses, it takes time to build businesses. And once a lot of cheap labor is permanently injected into the economy, we can’t say that demand will exceed supply.
To Trump’s credit, his team has tried to assuage the concerns of many “America First” conservatives. But his team statement The document provided to The New York Times states: “All communists, radical Islamists, Hamas supporters, [and] “People who hate America.” The statement goes on to say, “Only after such vetting has taken place will we retain the most skilled graduates who can make a significant contribution to America, and who will never be paid less than the American wage.”
But where is the guarantee that America-loving immigrants won’t drive down wages? The labor market doesn’t care if Mexican Catholics, Palestinian Hamas supporters, or Chinese Communist Party members enter the labor pool. Any big shock of foreign labor will affect American wages. In fact, the big tech lobby openly admits that immigration is necessary to drive down wages.
FWD.us, a pro-immigration lobbying group founded by Silicon Valley elites including Mark Zuckerberg and “All In” podcast host Chamath Palihapitiya, report It called for increased immigration to curb inflation and “alleviate domestic labor shortages,” arguing that “when labor is scarce relative to demand, employers offer higher wages, which are then passed on to consumers, leading to higher prices.” The report states that “as immigration declined before and during the pandemic, [hospitality and construction] Most jobs go unfilled, leading to extreme labor shortages and rising wages.”
In other words, companies want mass immigration to lower wages. If there is truly a labor shortage, companies need to raise wages. That sounds like a win for Americans, but Silicon Valley elites think it’s more worthwhile to spend their money lobbying for cheap foreign labor than to hire Americans.
But some experts have a different opinion. David P. Goldman, deputy editor of the Asia Times and Washington fellow at the Claremont Institute’s American Way of Life Center, praised Trump’s proposal, calling it “very sensible” and “simple, straightforward and doable,” to Blaze Media.
“We want qualified immigrants, not unskilled illegal immigrants who compete with low-income workers for jobs and put a strain on social services. We need more STEM graduates, especially engineers. About 6 percent of our undergraduates are engineering majors, compared with 33 percent in Russia and China,” Goldman said. “International students make up a disproportionate share of STEM graduates, and our dysfunctional K-12 education system is not producing enough college entrants with engineering and natural science qualifications.”
victim
Recent STEM graduates cannot afford to compete with an artificially inflated applicant pool: there is no “labor shortage” as pro-immigration lobby groups claim.
Many of my friends at the University of Texas at Austin who are majoring in computer science or related fields say they worry about finding a tech job. Recent graduates remain unemployed, despite holding degrees from the seventh-ranked undergraduate computer science program in the country and listing multiple internships and projects on their resumes.
Dhriti Rajan, a University of Texas alumna, graduated last year with a degree in computer science, but she’s still job hunting.
“The market is not very good right now, so a lot of companies are not willing to hire anyone below a senior engineering level,” Rajan says. “Also, there are so many applicants for many jobs that unless you get a referral or write a letter to a recruiter directly rather than just submitting an application, your chances of getting your application seen by a large company are slim.”
This phenomenon is evident across the country. Even though STEM graduates, on average, earn more than non-STEM graduates, 28% The percentage of STEM-educated workers who are employed in STEM-related jobs.
Additionally, many foreign graduates enjoy an advantage over U.S.-born STEM graduates. “Foreign graduates on OPT (Optional Practical Training), a program that gives foreign students a three-year work permit upon graduation with a STEM degree, have a competitive advantage over U.S. citizens when it comes to getting their first job out of college,” Lin says. “Hiring an OPT worker over a U.S. citizen or permanent resident represents a 15.3% discount per student, as both the employer and the foreign graduate are exempt from paying Medicare and Social Security taxes.”
President Trump is the most influential person promoting an America First immigration policy. It’s good that centrists and liberal “techies” are starting to realize the folly of open borders, but now is not the time to fool the public with “compromise” on immigration. In the end, President Trump’s rhetoric may reflect a tactic to attract donors rather than a strategy to further depress wages and destabilize society.
