[chojeen]

My dad owns a mid-size landscaping company in a medium-sized city in the Midwest. Until the Great Recession hit, he'd hire around a hundred of laborers from Mexico and Latin America on H2-A visas every year. He could only do so after proving that they could not hire enough Americans at a reasonable wage (obviously, the meaning of "reasonable" is hotly debated, but at the time, it meant slightly higher than minimum wage). I've never understood why similar restrictions aren't put on H1-B visas.

[dudul]

"they could not hire enough Americans at a reasonable wage (obviously, the meaning of "reasonable" is hotly debated, but at the time, it meant slightly higher than minimum wage)"

So as long as you're trying to get more than minimum wage you are being unreasonable? Even though your skills are in high demand/short supply?

This is basically a way to say "You Americans who have valuable knowledge/skills, do you really think we're gonna let you take advantage of demand and supply to make more money out of them? F-you, we're gonna pass some laws to allow us to import people from 3rd world countries to replace you".

I'd like to see these companies' reactions if we did the same with imported goods and abolished all taxations for products manufactured outside of the country.

[cmdrfred]

They would love that. They don't care if it was 'made in America' they just want to sell it here.

[dudul]

I was talking about local companies...

[geoelectric]

Those restrictions are in place, to the point that there are requirements for advertising the job for a certain time, etc.

One of the classic ways to get around that one was quietly advertising the job on a company bulletin board or in a low-readership classified section, or something like that.

Not sure if that loophole ever got fixed, but basically, companies game the system.

[Kalium]

In theory, there are similar restrictions. In practice, there's a whole micro-industry to help you get around them.