OPINION:
America should be the first choice for the world’s most talented scientists, engineers, and builders. The H-1B visa was meant to help make that happen by being a precision tool for bringing in top foreign talent. In practice, though, it too often works as a channel for cheap labor that shortchanges both American workers and genuinely exceptional immigrants.
Fortunately, Washington is finally paying attention. Last month, President Trump ordered federal agencies to weigh whether an H-1B sponsor has laid off workers, or plans to, when reviewing its filings. The order builds on Project Firewall, the Labor Department enforcement push launched in September 2025.
Much of this simply enforces rules that went ignored for years, so it’s a good start, but the harder question remains: how do we recruit the world’s best without undercutting the Americans already here?
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The fact is, America has real shortages of skilled workers. In August, 23% of small business owners in the National Federation of Independent Business survey named labor quality or availability as their single most important problem, nearly double the historical average. According to the poll, 31% had openings for skilled workers.
Likewise, Associated Builders and Contractors says construction must attract 349,000 new workers this year. The federal government projects a 10% shortage of registered nurses in 2027. The chip industry expects 67,000 technician, engineering and computer science jobs to go unfilled by 2030.
But the locations of those shortages are important because they have little overlap with the jobs H-1B visas actually fill.
Computer-related occupations accounted for 65% of approved H-1B petitions in fiscal 2023. That is exactly where young Americans are struggling: the New York Fed puts unemployment among recent computer science graduates near 7% and at nearly 8% for computer engineering, above the rate for recent graduates overall.
How the law handles pay is also problematic, requiring only a “prevailing wage,” whose lowest tier sits well below what comparable Americans earn. The Labor Department itself acknowledged in March that its formula often lets employers pay foreign workers significantly less and proposed raising the floor.
Harvard economist George Borjas found H-1B workers earn about 16% less than Americans with the same education, age, occupation and location, with the widest gaps at outsourcing firms. Economists dispute the exact size, but a discount of any size gives employers a reason to choose a visa holder over an equally qualified American.
That hits hardest for the students told a technical degree was the surest route to the middle class. If that promise keeps breaking, fewer Americans will choose these fields at all, just as competition with China in AI and chips intensifies.
The program has also become a target for organized fraud. In July, the Labor Department’s Inspector General announced a nationwide investigation into what it called widespread schemes of fraudulent applications and coercive wage kickbacks, including possible links to human trafficking.
Enforcement works when it is tried. Within two months, Project Firewall opened at least 175 investigations and assessed about $15 million in back wages. The new order goes further, extending layoff scrutiny from the heaviest H-1B users to every sponsor, and from a 90-day window to a full year.
Executive actions, though, can be reversed or tied up in court, as the $100,000 H-1B fee already has been.
Lasting reform needs Congress to codify changes like the new wage-weighted lottery, which favors higher-paid applicants, so visas reward skill and technical expertise rather than luck.
Likewise, sponsors should be required to recruit Americans first and certify they’re not being displaced, subject to penalties so cheating becomes more expensive than compliance. And there should be a wage floor that reflects what comparable Americans truly earn, so a visa is never a discount.
Furthermore, the program should aim for where the actual shortages are, with faster green cards for the creme de la creme of scientists and engineers.
A program that rewards the cheapest hire instead of the best one cheats talented foreigners, and — more importantly — cheats America of the talent the visa was meant to attract.
U.S. immigration policy should serve America first, and that starts by cracking down on employers that displace Americans with cheaper foreign labor who use welfare, and file fraudulent applications. It also means competing for the best and brightest workers, ensuring the U.S. workforce remains the most talented and skilled in the world because that talent will benefit every American.
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E.J. Antoni is a senior fellow at Unleash Prosperity and chief economist at the Heritage Foundation. Annie Heim is a research assistant in Heritage’s Institute for Economic Policy Studies.
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