patrick.net

President Trump just suspended nearly all guest-worker programs for the rest of the year. This historic executive order will open up more than 500,000 jobs to Americans — and it’ll disproportionately help Black citizens.

These reforms aren’t mere rhetoric. They’re tangible proof that Donald Trump believes Black workers matter.

The order could not have come at a better time. About 45 million Americans have filed for unemployment since the pandemic began. ...

To reduce pressure on jobseekers, the Trump administration stopped issuing green cards — which give lifetime work privileges to permanent immigrants — to individuals not already in the United States in April. But until Monday, the president hadn’t stopped his administration from processing up to 1 million temporary guest-worker visas that corporations use to hire foreign laborers for at least 7 percent less pay than Americans.

By suspending these guest-worker programs, President Trump rejected the demands of Big Business and stood up for the “forgotten men and women” that politicians in both parties have ignored for decades.

The United States hands out 1 million green cards a year. On top of that, every year we admit about 750,000 guest workers who we are told are necessary to do jobs Americans won’t. But that isn’t true. These guest workers displace Americans and drive down wages for all workers in those occupations.

In 2019, 188,000 foreign workers came to the United States on H-1B visas — and mostly took entry-level tech jobs. That same year 98,000 came on H-2B visas to take construction, landscaping and other manual-labor jobs. An unlimited number can come on H-2A farmworker visas. ...

But there’s no need to bring in foreign competition when so many qualified Americans are desperate for jobs.

Big Business lobbyists claim we need these guest workers because Americans won’t do hard, dirty jobs like meatpacking or landscaping. That’s nonsense. ...

The influx of foreign labor depresses Americans’ wages, according to more than a dozen studies reviewed by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. And less-advantaged Americans, particularly minorities, suffer the biggest losses in earnings — since they compete most directly with foreigners. ...

At a time of record unemployment, there’s simply no reason to import guest workers for jobs that Americans are able and willing to do.