Taken from Americans
Wages, jobs, and homes are being stolen from Americans.
H-1B, H-4 EAD, and OPT/STEM OPT were created and expanded by Congress and federal agencies, not by a vote of the American public. The result is a corporate labor pipeline that steals payroll, jobs, and housing from American hands at national scale.
annual payroll stolen from American paychecks via H-1B, H-4 EAD, and OPT/STEM OPT
Wages Americans have earned the right to compete for, redirected to a cheaper visa workforce so corporations don't have to pay Americans.
U.S.-based positions directly occupied by workers in those channels
Jobs Americans are more than capable of doing, taken from them to suppress wages and to avoid paying American workers.
U.S. housing units occupied by the H-1B/H-4/OPT population
Homes Americans are more than capable of buying and renting, locked up by a visa workforce. That is half a million fewer places for American families to put down roots, raise children, and build the life they were promised was within reach.
of FY2024 H-1B workers filed at Wage Level I or II
The lower two tiers, both below the local median wage.
What is being taken
From Americans, to fill corporate roles.
These are not abstract policy effects. The wages, jobs, and homes below are tangible things American workers and families are not getting because the pipeline exists.
Wages
62.6% of FY2024 H-1B workers were filed at the lower two wage tiers, below the local median. The Department of Labor itself states this often allows employers to pay foreign workers significantly less than similarly qualified Americans. The result: roughly $109,000,000,000 – $121,000,000,000 in annual payroll runs through this pipeline instead of lifting American wages.
Jobs
About 1.06M to 1.09M U.S.-based positions are currently occupied through H-1B, H-4 EAD, and OPT/STEM OPT. American graduates and mid-career workers compete against a labor pool this size that exists only because of these programs.
Homes
An estimated ~500,000 U.S. housing units are occupied by the H-1B/H-4/OPT population, including at least ~300,000 owner-occupied homes tied to H-1B households. With the homeowner vacancy rate at 1.1% in Q4 2024, every one of those units is a unit Americans cannot buy or rent.
Career starts
OPT and STEM OPT are uncapped and aimed straight at entry-level work. ICE counted 381,140 foreign students with practical-training work authorization in 2024, competing for the same first jobs American graduates need to start a career.
The wage data
62.6% filed below the local median. Here is what that pays.
Under the Department of Labor's prevailing wage system, Level I is set at roughly the 17th percentile of local pay for the occupation, and Level II at roughly the 34th percentile. In FY2024, 62.6% of H-1B filings used those bottom two tiers. The chart below shows what that means in dollars for the most common H-1B occupations, compared to what American workers in the same role actually earn.
These are not specialized roles Americans cannot do. Computer occupations, systems analysts, and software developers are produced in massive numbers by U.S. universities every year — engineering and computer science graduates in the Class of 2024 were projected by NACE to earn among the highest starting salaries of any major. The Level I and Level II floors exist so employers can fill those same jobs for tens of thousands of dollars less per worker, and avoid paying the going American rate.
Sources: U.S. Department of Labor OFLC prevailing wage levels, BLS OES May 2024 occupational wage data, NACE Class of 2024 starting salary survey.
Who this is for
This is corporate policy, sold as immigration policy.
The benefits of H-1B, H-4 EAD, and OPT/STEM OPT do not flow to American workers as a class. They flow to the small set of large employers that file most of the petitions and that designed their hiring around the wage and tax structure of these programs.
Lower payroll, higher margins
Filing at the lower wage tiers lets large employers cut compensation costs across entire teams. With roughly $109,000,000,000 – $121,000,000,000 in annual payroll moving through this pipeline, even small per-worker discounts compound into very large corporate savings.
Captive workforce
An H-1B worker's status is tied to the employer. That dependency limits the worker's ability to negotiate, change jobs, or push back, which is a feature, not a bug, for the companies that use the program most.
Free entry-level labor pipeline
OPT and STEM OPT are exempt from the employer-side payroll taxes that apply to American hires. That is a direct per-hire discount on entry-level talent, paid for by the rest of the tax base.
Public cost, private gain
Americans absorb the wage pressure, the housing pressure, and the lost career starts. The programs are sold as national policy, but the upside is concentrated in a narrow set of corporate balance sheets.
No vote, no consent
Americans were never asked.
Each major expansion of this pipeline was created by statute or by federal rulemaking. None of it was put to the public.
year Congress created the modern H-1B program, with no national referendum
DHS extended OPT to 17 months for STEM by regulation, not by Congress
STEM OPT extended again to 24 months by federal rule, not by a vote of the public
H-4 EAD created by executive regulation to authorize work for H-1B spouses
ballot measures any American voter has cast on H-1B, H-4 EAD, or OPT
The talent claim
"Talent we can't produce" does not match the data.
The pipeline is justified to the public as a way to bring in irreplaceable specialists. The published numbers describe a different program: high-volume, lower-tier, and concentrated in occupations American graduates already train for.
H-1B petitions approved in FY2024, with 64% in computer-related occupations
These are not rare specialists. They are the same software, IT, and analyst roles American graduates are trained for every year.
NACE projected computer science as one of the top-paid bachelor's majors
If American graduates were truly being out-competed on talent, starting salaries for the same roles would not be among the highest in the country.
of H-1B filings at Wage Level I or II in FY2024
The published wage data shows the program is dominated by lower-tier filings, which is the opposite of what a 'best and brightest' program would look like.
Documented fraud
The system is rampant with abuse.
Federal agencies, oversight bodies, and the Department of Justice have all documented organized fraud and weak enforcement across this pipeline.
USCIS found a coordinated lottery gaming scheme
USCIS publicly stated that the H-1B registration process had been gamed by employers submitting multiple registrations for the same beneficiary to increase selection odds, and made rule changes in response. The agency itself acknowledged the system was being abused at scale.
DOJ has prosecuted H-1B visa fraud rings
The Department of Justice has charged staffing operators with conspiracy, visa fraud, and related offenses for filing fake H-1B petitions, benching workers without pay, and inventing client placements. These are not isolated paperwork errors. They are organized schemes.
GAO and OIG have flagged weak oversight
Federal oversight reports have repeatedly found that wage and worksite enforcement on H-1B is limited, that prevailing wage determinations are easy to manipulate, and that site visits cover a small fraction of approved petitions. The system runs largely on the honor system.
Diploma mills and shell employers
Investigations have documented degree mills and paper-only employers used to qualify beneficiaries and to keep workers in status between real jobs. The 'talent shortage' narrative cannot be separated from the documented record of fraud.
Bottom line
End the program.
The pipeline transfers wages, jobs, and homes from Americans to corporate balance sheets. It was put in place without a public vote, it runs on a documented record of fraud, and the "talent we can't produce" claim is not supported by the agencies' own data. Hire Americans. Train Americans. Pay Americans.
Where the numbers come from
- USCIS H-1B approvals and compensation data, FY2024
- U.S. Department of Labor H-1B wage-level data
- ICE SEVIS OPT and STEM OPT authorization counts
- U.S. Census housing vacancy and household-size data
- DOJ press releases and federal oversight reports on H-1B fraud