By: The Editorial Board – wsj.com – December 29, 2024

Enlightened nationalism understands the need for immigrant talent.

The debate broke out late last week on social media as Mr. Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy defended the legal, high-skill H-1B visa program from critics who want to sharply reduce even legal immigration. “I have many H-1B visas on my properties,” Mr. Trump told the New York Post. “I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program.”

Mr. Trump may be confusing the H-1B program with the H-2B visas he has used for workers at his hotel properties. But the point is that both are legal programs that help to fill labor needs in the U.S. economy. Unlike illegal migration, these programs don’t offend the rule of law or risk importing criminals.

Mr. Trump’s position isn’t surprising since he has often said he favors skilled immigration. In June he told a podcast with Silicon Valley potentates that if “anybody graduates from a college, you go in there for two years or four years, if you graduate, or you get a doctorate degree from a college, you should be able to stay in this country.”

Many of those foreign graduates who remain in the U.S. do so under H-1B visas, which are sponsored by companies. The program is small—capped at 85,000 a year—and has reached its quota every year since 2004. For fiscal 2025 the H-1B requests exceed the limit by five times, according to immigration expert Stuart Anderson of the National Foundation for American Policy.

Some 30,000 employers gained approval through a lottery system for at least one H-1B applicant in fiscal 2024, which attests to the broad demand. The U.S. jobless rate for computer and math jobs was 2.5%, and 2% for architecture and engineering, in November 2024, Mr. Anderson says.

Some critics say H-1B visas let companies pay less than U.S. workers earn, but under the law employers must pay H-1B visa holders the higher of the prevailing wage or actual wage paid to comparable U.S. workers. Mr. Anderson says the average annual salary for an H-1B visa holder in 2023 for computer-related jobs was $132,000, according to U.S. immigration data. This isn’t exploitation of cheap labor.

The U.S. is in a global competition for economic and technological leadership, and U.S. firms need the best talent. Studies show that when applicants are denied H-1Bs, they go abroad. “For the most global multinational companies, this is at almost a 1-1 rate,” Britta Glennon of the Wharton School told Mr. Anderson in an interview based on her study.

There have been some abuses of the H-1B program, but they are no reason to shrink or eliminate it. U.S. companies find it crucial to compete. And one way to reduce illegal immigration is to allow more legal pathways to meet the needs of the U.S. economy.

Some conservatives want to define nationalism solely by geography and ethnicity. But the U.S. has thrived because it has invited talented newcomers from many nations who add to U.S. strength and vitality. This is intelligent nationalism of the kind we assume Mr. Trump wants.

To see this article in its entirety and to subscribe to others like this, please choose to read more.

Source: Trump Is Right on H-1B Visas – WSJ