American companies and institutions have utilized the notoriously abused H-1B work visa program to staff diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices, according to documents released by Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.
“I’ve reviewed numerous examples of hospitals, universities and other employers hiring foreign H-1B workers as DEI bureaucrats,” Schmitt said on social media. “Examples range from large banks and law firms to universities, healthcare systems, and even municipal park districts. Obviously, DEI positions are plainly non-technical and ideological in nature, and appear to fall outside the ‘specialty occupation’ intent of the H-1B statute.”
The senator’s office reviewed H-1B visa applications submitted by various employers and found that Yale New Haven Health filed Labor Condition Applications for the job of “Diversity and Inclusion Specialists.”
Carnegie Mellon University filed the same document for “Associate Dean of Diversity, Inclusion, Climate & Equity.” The trustees of Dartmouth College wanted a “Program Manager, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.” As American academia is the progenitor of the DEI ideology, it is unsurprising to find it behind much of the H-1B abuse to fill DEI jobs.
In a letter to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph Edlow, Schmitt said those are “just a few of many examples.”
“More to the point, in light of everything we know about DEI, it is alarming that both private companies and public institutions alike appear to be using foreign workers to work in these roles — placing non-Americans in positions where they are tasked with policing the speech and thought of our own citizens,” Schmitt added.
As The Federalist reported, that kind of replacement is a feature of the playbook run by the left and the so-called “elite,” who consolidate power over the generational folkways of Americans by ushering in millions of people whose culture is totally unrecognizable to U.S. citizens. H-1B visas appear to be yet another tool in the left’s arsenal of government programs to achieve its political goals.
Schmitt himself recognized the detriments of “legal” immigration earlier this month at the National Conservatism conference, slamming the H-1B program specifically because it “imported millions of foreign nationals to replace American workers — and transferred entire industries into the hands of foreign lobbies.”
“Rather than recruiting genuinely exceptional top-level talent, in many cases the H-1B visa is now regularly used to staff middle management bureaucracies,” Schmitt said on social media. “Rather than 160+ IQ rocket scientists, it’s being used to import HR managers, customer service representatives, and so on.”
Schmitt has been a vocal critic of the program for some time, and the debate over H-1B and other work and education visas for foreign nationals is persistently intense among those on the right, as many are demanding a cessation of nearly all immigration, a refocus on the success and well-being of Americans, and a preservation of American culture.
As The Federalist previously reported, the issue has blown up several times recently, including during the Trump transition, when defense of H-1Bs was the subject of an Elon Musk crash-out because he was angry that Americans wanted Americans to hold American jobs. Musk at the time implied H-1B recipients were geniuses like Albert Einstein or Nikola Tesla that America couldn’t do without, an obvious overstatement.
When it comes to the Trump administration’s handling of the interests of American workers, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump did apply a remittances tax, but it was a puny 1 percent and seems even more meaningless because it only applies to physical money, like cash or checks, and does not apply to electronic transfers. The Trump administration is also defending in court a rule from the Obama administration that gives the spouses of H-1B recipients work permits, which was never passed by Congress.
In addition, the Trump administration announced that it would permit 600,000 Chinese into the country on student visas, and had to walk back toying with the idea of mass amnesty for agricultural workers (though the end result remains to be seen).
However, Trump did sign a proclamation last week restricting entry for H-1B aliens unless they pay $100,000, as well as “restrict[ing] decisions on petitions not accompanied by a $100,000 payment for H-1B specialty occupation workers … who are currently outside the United States, for 12 months.”
Despite that, White House press secretary clarified that the fee is not annual, that those who are already H-1B recipients outside the United States would not be charged the payment upon reentry, and that the payment only applies to new visas and not renewals — all concessions that heavily dilute the fees’ effectiveness.
Breccan F. Thies is the White House correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.
