Iowa’s Democratic candidate for governor, Rob Sand, told voters during Wednesday night’s gubernatorial debate that he supports bringing more H-1B visa workers into white-collar jobs in the state, even as his Republican opponent calls for cutting off the program at state agencies and universities.
“[I] want to make sure that we have professionals in the state of Iowa to do what we need done for Iowans,” Sand said on stage.
Republican candidate Zach Lahn has pledged to stop state agencies and public universities from using the H-1B program instead of hiring American workers. “I don’t think it’s the right idea to import people from other countries to be doing these [Iowa taxpayer-funded] jobs,” Lahn said during the debate.
Lahn laid out his alternative approach to the audience:
I think we need to take a long-term approach at looking to say, “How do we build the workforce in Iowa?” I believe a self-respecting state and a self-respecting country is a country that is going to invest in its people, the people that are here.
Sand pushed back, arguing that cutting off H-1B visas would leave jobs unfilled if the pool of American applicants runs dry.
If you end that [H-1B inflow], what happens if you’ve run out of [American] applicants? Then you don’t have any. You want to prioritize Iowans? That’s a good idea, but saying that you’re not welcome otherwise, I think, is a mistake. We got a lot of work that we need to have done in Iowa.
Sand also pointed to Iowa’s population trends as a reason to keep the door open to immigrants. “We’re one of the slowest growing populations in America… We need to make sure that we’re not closing the door on people who want to be here,” he said. He cited a classmate from his law school days in Iowa City — an American who moved from Hawaii and ended up staying — as an example of someone who found a home in the state unexpectedly.
Lahn laid out a detailed case for ending university and state-agency use of the program, framing it as an investment in Iowans already struggling to find work or training.
We are a welcoming country. But we have people in our state and our country that are hurting, that are looking for work and looking for training, and we need to be investing in the citizens that are within our state and within our country, and so I think that that is the ultimate answer as we look at this, is how do we build up the skill set and the population of the people that live here to make sure, for the long term, that we have a plan to cover these jobs?
And I think that through efforts like that, through efforts like ending H-1Bs at our universities and state government, [we can] make sure Iowa kids have the first say at those jobs… We can say that we are prioritizing the people that live here, that built this state, that want to be here for four, five, or six more generations, like many of us have. I don’t think it’s the right idea to import people.
The numbers behind the fight
Since 2015, the University of Iowa has requested 2,788 foreign workers and Iowa State University of Science and Technology has requested 1,385, according to government data compiled by LayoffHedge.com. State agencies have also brought in foreign labor through contractors such as Infosys and Capgemini.
Private employers have their own tallies. Since 2015, Deere & Co. has requested 305 H-1B workers, TransAmerican Life Insurance Co. has requested 211, and the Genesis Health System has requested 157. More than 1,300 employers statewide have sought H-1B workers since 2015, with many also tapping the J-1, L-1, OPT, and F-1/H4EAD programs for additional foreign labor.
Iowa’s governor has no legal authority to stop private companies from using the federal H-1B program, but can use public pressure to push them toward hiring Americans first. Lahn argues that opening those jobs to Iowans would help keep young people from leaving the state.
