Citing his history of opposing legislation that would displace American workers, Republican Senator Bill Hagerty is pressing Senator Bernie Sanders to oppose provisions of the "Build Back Better" reconciliation bill that he says would allow Big Tech firms to replace American graduates with a "functionally limitless supply of cheaper foreign labor."
Hagerty (R-Tenn.) sent Sanders (I-Vt.) a Dear Colleague letter on Friday arguing that the Democrats' reconciliation bill "contains several breathtaking immigration provisions that have long been the crown jewel of corporate lobbying." National Review obtained a copy of the letter on Monday.
In particular, Republicans are pointing at a provision in the House bill that for ten years would exempt certain immigrants, along with their spouses and children, from numerical limits on "family-sponsored preference" and "employer-based" green cards, as established in the Immigration and Nationality Act. Earlier this month, the Republican Study Committee cited the provision as one of the 42 worst parts of the reconciliation bill, because it would create a "hidden pipeline" that would allow employers to flood middle-class careers with foreign workers.
In his letter to Sanders, Hagerty wrote that "no corporate lobby has more consistently and vociferously lobbied for these uncapped foreign worker programs than the technology giants in Silicon Valley."
"The provisions will allow Facebook, Microsoft, Google, and numerous other technology companies across America to employ a functionally limitless supply of cheaper foreign labor in place of willing, able, and qualified American workers," Hagerty wrote. "It will also mean American workers currently employed by these companies will be far less likely to see wage gains or increased compensation because employers will have the leverage to easily replace them at less cost with workers imported from overseas."
Hagerty wrote that among those who would be most disadvantaged by the labor provisions in the bill are African Americans, Hispanics, and female workers seeking to enter Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields.
"I can think of nothing more dispiriting than telling an entire generation of young Americans, who are set to graduate from school and have had to endure the travails of the pandemic, that some of America's best and highest-paying jobs aren't available to them because Big Tech secured a corporate carve-out for unlimited foreign labor in the reconciliation bill," he wrote.
Hagerty noted in his letter that for most of his political career, Sanders, a democratic socialist, has been "an outspoken critic of large-scale migration that displaces American workers."
During a 2007 immigration debate, Sanders said "I think at a time when the middle class is shrinking, the last thing we need is to bring, over a period of years, millions of people into this country who are prepared to lower wages for American workers," according to the Washington Post. In 2013, he said "corporate America is kind of using immigration reform as a means to continue their effort to lower wages in the United States of America." He also has said, "real immigration reform puts the needs of working people first – not wealthy globetrotting donors."
In recent years, however, Sanders has changed the way he talks about immigration and its impact on American workers, bringing him more in line with other progressives.
Sanders's office did not respond to a message sent by National Review via the senator's website on Monday afternoon.
Democrats are trying to wrap up negotiations on the reconciliation bill, which had once been pegged as a sweeping $3.5 trillion package. Media reports now indicate the price tag has been reduced to about half of that. Sanders has been an advocate of the higher price tag, seeing it as his legislative legacy and the greatest expansion of the social safety net in decades.
In his letter, Hagerty called on Sanders to publicly oppose the unlimited green card provisions in the bill, and to demand they be stripped from the bill before the House votes on it.
"Despite our disagreements on a number of policy issues, I cannot imagine that, based on your career's work, you could countenance the provision contained in the House bill, which amounts to an enormous corporate-special-interest giveaway," Hagerty wrote. "I am sure you must agree that the key to America's greatness is the strength of its middle class and that a provision that will allow America's richest billionaires to profit while blocking our most vulnerable citizens' pathway to the American middle class must be rejected."
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