{"id":23154,"date":"2020-07-01T06:23:53","date_gmt":"2020-07-01T10:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=23154"},"modified":"2020-07-01T06:23:55","modified_gmt":"2020-07-01T10:23:55","slug":"biden-h1b-built-this-country-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2020\/07\/01\/biden-h1b-built-this-country-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Biden Claims that \u201cH-1B Guestworkers Built this Country\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the summer of 2012, President Barack Obama infuriated small business owners by declaring during a campaign rally that \u201cif you\u2019ve got a business, you didn\u2019t build that<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His full comments reflected the broader theme\nof his stump speech that the government paved the way for businesses to become\nsuccessful. Even so, it struck a nerve with small business owners who felt that\nthe president was dismissing the hard work required to build a business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His vice president, Joe Biden, just had his own \u201cyou didn\u2019t build that\u201d moment. In a digital town hall with NBC News<\/a>, the Democratic nominee forcefully rebuked President Trump\u2019s recent executive order<\/a> blocking new arrivals of certain categories of guestworkers. Biden then said that \u201cthe people coming on these [H-1B] visas have built this country.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The H-1B program allows employers to hire foreign guestworkers in technical and skilled roles. Congress capped the program at 85,000 visas a year, 20,000 of which must go to people who hold advanced degrees. Recently, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) estimated that there are over 600,000 H-1B holders<\/a> currently in the United States, but some immigration experts suspect the actual number is significantly higher<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden\u2019s claim is interesting, to say the least. Congress created the H-1B program in 1990, decades after the United States emerged as the world\u2019s dominant economy. There are without a doubt H-1B workers who contribute mightily to American companies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as a whole, they hardly \u201cbuilt the country\u201d as the former vice president claims. Research indicates that most H-1B workers are not exceptionally skilled workers but rather exceedingly average<\/a> white-collar workers who happen to cost less to employ<\/a> than Americans in the same positions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This type of hyperbole is unfortunately quite common. Just as illegal alien apologists claim that the country needs low-skilled illegal aliens because there are \u201cjobs Americans won\u2019t do<\/a>,\u201d there are those who drive the narrative that there are simply not enough Americans majoring in STEM<\/a> fields to fill the jobs gap. This is simply not true. The Census Bureau found<\/a> that 74 percent of people with STEM degrees did not work in a true STEM field. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no STEM degree shortage. Instead, Americans with these skills are looking elsewhere as corporations increasingly rely<\/a> on cheaper and more compliant foreign guestworkers to fill entry-level roles. Unfortunately, this pattern and these perceptions will continue until Congress meaningfully reforms or permanently eliminates the H-1B program. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the summer of 2012, President Barack Obama infuriated small business owners by declaring during a campaign rally that \u201cif you\u2019ve got a business, you didn\u2019t build that.\u201d His full comments reflected the broader theme of his stump speech that the government paved the way for businesses to become successful. Even so, it struck a<\/p>\n

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