Big Tech firms like Apple, Microsoft, Meta, and others are often touted as US entrepreneurial success stories.  It is strange, then, that they have such an aversion for hiring natural-born citizens of the States to work for them.

Even the most MAGA-supporting of them, Elon Musk’s Tesla, is eager to hire cheaper foreign workers using H-1B visas:

‘It’s no secret that Elon Musk is a big fan of the H-1B program, which puts him at odds with the core principles of the America First movement. Don’t get us wrong—we’re incredibly grateful for everything Elon has done to support Trump and fight for free speech. He’s made some amazing contributions, and we’re not taking anything away from that. But we can’t just gloss over the fact that hiring foreign workers over Americans is a real issue. To ignore it would fly in the face of everything America First stands for.

‘The fire started when Amanda Louise, an America First advocate, called out Musk and Tesla when she happened upon several job listings for the company in a newspaper. She suggested that Elon was “hiding” these jobs from Americans, so they could hire more foreign workers.  . . .

‘Elon Musk has done incredible things for innovation and free speech, but his support and use of the H-1B program don’t exactly line up with the America First agenda. Let’s be honest—prioritizing foreign workers over Americans is the kind of globalist mentality that got us into this mess in the first place. If Elon truly wants to be a champion of the American spirit, he should embrace every part of the America First movement, especially foundational issues like hiring American workers’ (‘Did Tesla hide job listings in newspapers so they can hire H-1B visa workers?’, revolver.news)

Some statistics from various Big Tech firms confirm their disdain for the citizens of the US:

‘Employers are using H-1B visas to hire foreign workers at significantly lower wages, displacing qualified U.S. workers. Recent statistics show that while mass layoffs have disproportionately impacted American-born workers, foreign workers continue to be hired, undermining job opportunities for U.S. citizens. In 2022, 65% of H-1B visas went to computer occupations, specifically, the tech industry.

‘From 2022 to 2024, the tech industry saw more than 569,000 layoffs across major companies like Amazon, Meta, Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce. Many of these layoffs were attributed to economic downturns, restructuring, or overhiring. However, despite these layoffs, these same companies continued to submit thousands of H-1B petitions, effectively replacing U.S. workers with foreign labor.

‘Amazon: Laid off 27,000 workers globally in 2023 but continued to file H-1B petitions, bringing in additional foreign workers through outsourcing firms like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys.

‘Alphabet (Google): Despite laying off 12,000 employees in 2023, Alphabet filed more than 6,000 H-1B petitions, continuing to bring in foreign workers even as more U.S. workers were displaced.

‘Meta (Facebook): Laid off 21,000 workers between 2022 and 2023 but continued to file new H-1B petitions and to increase its reliance on foreign labor through the H-1B program.

‘ . . . Companies are exploiting the PERM [Program Electronic Review Management—W.G.] process by using fraudulent recruitment practices to bypass U.S. workers and hire foreign labor for permanent positions. This abuse results in the exclusion of American workers from jobs they are qualified for.

‘Several major legal cases have revealed how companies exploit the PERM process to bypass U.S. workers: Facebook settled with the DOJ for $14.25 million after being accused of systematically excluding U.S. workers from jobs reserved for foreign nationals under the PERM process. This case set a significant precedent, demonstrating how employers manipulate the system to favor foreign workers over Americans.

‘Infosys paid $34 million to settle claims of visa fraud, which included filing false job descriptions and misclassifying foreign workers to bypass recruitment requirements. The settlement revealed systemic abuse of both the H-1B and PERM programs, further underscoring the need for stricter enforcement’ (Institute for Sound Public Policy, A Call to Protect American Workers: The Need for Non-Immmigrant Visa Reform, pgs. 2-5; report available at instituteforsoundpublicpolicy.org/petition/).

One will note that Meta/Facebook figures prominently in the H-1B visa abuses and others.  This should give pause to everyone cheering the Meta AI data center announced for Richland Parish.  The narrative being presented to folks in Northeast Louisiana (NELa) is that this center will provide high-paying jobs for lots of people now living in the area.  Given the foregoing, it is more likely that only a few natives of Richland and surrounding parishes will be hired by Meta for positions at the data center, while the bulk of the jobs go to foreign workers brought in on visas.

And this injustice begets another:  the destruction of the conservative culture of NELa.  Generally speaking, workers from abroad who settle in the US lean Left politically:

‘The evidence is as overwhelming as it is bleak. Whether we like it or not, non-European immigrant and immigrant-descended groups break reliably for the Democrats and strongly favour their policy agenda. They are considerably less attached to American traditions and much more ethnocentric about their own tribe. Worst of all, there is a problem of radical entitlement, reflected in the belief among many immigrant groups that their new adoptive country should change to appease their own needs and preferences. A majority (55%) of American citizens under 30, the most diverse generation in U.S. history, support abolishing the Constitution and designing a new one to put in its place.

‘When all generations are thrown into the mix, it becomes clear that immigration-fuelled demographic change is doing a lot of heavy lifting to produce such iconoclastic preferences among Gen Z respondents. As many as 73% of black people and 60% of Asians want to see the Constitution ditched. (56% of Hispanics, it must be said, oppose such vandalism, but this is still an alarming figure given their growing numbers and the fact that the younger ones are more left-wing than their parents and grandparents.) College-educated white women are the targets of much exasperated humour in right-wing circles, but in fact only a piddling 6% of them believe that the Founding Fathers should be considered “villains” of history, compared to 26% of non-white men and 35% of non-white women drawn from all age groups and educational backgrounds.

‘This carries over into radically different attitudes to free speech—something of a sacred tradition to the Englishmen who built the United States. As Helen Andrews documents in the Summer issue of The American Conservative:

‘“When polled on questions such as whether the government may censor speech that is offensive or disrespectful, every race except whites consistently shows majority or supermajority support for censorship.”

‘Simply making sure that the immigration driving such wholesale erasure and replacement of American culture is legal, as Musk urges, does nothing to change the result’ (Harrison Pitt, ‘What Elon Musk Gets Wrong About Immigration’, europeanconservative.com).

And speaking of leaning Left, Meta was recently recognized by the Human Rights Campaign for its perfect score vis-à-vis their pro-LGBT policies (‘Equality 100 Award’, hrc.org).  An operation owned and operated by Meta won’t contribute much of anything good to the Christian fabric of Richland Parish, or NELa in general.

We hate to be the skunk at the garden party, but folks in NELa need to face reality:  Meta ain’t comin’ here to make life better for us but for a few oligarchs in Silicon Valley.  Richland Parish needs to rescind Meta’s invitation while there’s still time, before their culture and the environment around them are marred by distant, heartless globalists.

We aren’t opposed in principle to high-tech jobs coming to NELa.  But those who offer them ought to do so out of real concern for the welfare of this region.  Meta, we hope it is clear by now, is not motivated by such kindly intentions.

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Before we skedaddle, a word of thanks to Louisiana’s Legislature for passing the tax reforms that they did in their November special session.  We walloped them pretty hard back in the summer for shying away from this task, but they came through in the end with some good changes, which will hopefully lead to even better improvements in the future.  We thank them for their work.