'Servants from abroad...': Bernie Sanders says 'cheap labour' via H-1B making billionaires like Elon Musk rich

Senator Bernie Sanders has stepped into the fiery debate over high-skilled immigration, taking aim at Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and MAGA conservatives. In a statement released Thursday, the Vermont senator and former Democratic presidential candidate bluntly criticized the H-1B visa program, calling it a tool for corporate exploitation rather than innovation.

“The main function of the H-1B visa program is not to hire 'the best and the brightest,’ but to replace good-paying American jobs with low-wage indentured servants from abroad,” Sanders said. He accused corporations of using the system to cut costs, laying off American workers while hiring cheaper foreign labor. “The cheaper the labor they hire, the more money the billionaires make,” he added.

Musk and Ramaswamy have championed the visa system, arguing it addresses a critical shortage of high-skilled workers in the U.S. However, their stance has clashed with nationalist Republicans who claim the program undermines American workers by fostering unfair competition.

Sanders didn’t mince words in his call for reform. He proposed raising fees for corporations using the program, increasing minimum wages for guest workers, and granting them the flexibility to switch jobs more easily. “The widespread corporate abuse of the H-1B program must be ended,” he said. “It should never be cheaper for a corporation to hire a guest worker from overseas than an American worker.”

Former President Donald Trump, despite halting the H-1B program via executive order in 2020, has now sided with Musk in supporting its continuation, adding another layer to the ideological rift.

This clash underscores a deepening divide in the immigration debate—one that pits economic pragmatism against labor rights and nationalist priorities.