The issue is not one based on "meritocracy", but rather globalism. Meritocracy argus that all things being equal, one should hire the best candidate. But when competing against foreign workers, our country does not "owe" them the same "equal opportunity" to our jobs that it owes to American citizens and green card immigrants.

Globalism which is part of progressive ideology argues that employers have the right to seek the lowest labor costs they can find in order to produce products for less. Progressives like Obama argued that while this hurts American workers, it helps workers globally in poorer countries.

But should American workers have to compete against foreign workers willing to work for less? Trump argues that countries have an obligation to put their own citizens first. This is one reason why so many black and Hispanic citizens voted for Trump this past election.

So...

Whether those foreign workers take the form of:

illegal immigrants competing with US service workers,

guest workers (H1-B visas) competing for technology jobs,

and even workers working in China and India and other third world countries competing for manufacturing jobs through the cheap labor incorporated into the products they make

They are impacting wages for American citizens and green card holders.

So, should American workers be protected from having their standards of living lowered by foreign labor? I think so.

Employers rightly argue that there are shortages of workers in areas ranging from "crop picking" to technology. And they have a point. With overall unemployment very low, most workers can find a job if they want one.

Workers have a point also. When employers use foreign workers to hold down wages, they are not just trying to fill open positions but also trying to reduce wage rates. The former is okay, the latter is unacceptable.

The solution is simply. The US should design guest worker programs to protect US workers. The government should audit the program closely and require employers to pay foreign workers at least 90% of what they pay American workers for the same job. They should also pay and collect the same taxes they would if the worker were an American citizen. And lastly, they should pay a 20% surcharge making the cost to employ a foreign citizen at least 10% higher than a US citizen.

So, if we did that, wouldn't employers simply contract to employ the same workers to work remotely overseas? Some would, but many would not for fear their IP would be more easily stolen. But what about those employers that would move their work overseas?

The US could simply impose a labor equalization tax on workers employed or substantially controlled by an American company overseas. As an aside the 20% surcharge collected by the government for employing H1-B visa workers should go towards funding the program and providing scholarships to young Americans children living below the poverty line in order to access better educations and better jobs in the future.

Your assertion that racism is playing a role in this debate is largely absurd. It is all about profit... the key color here is "green". Historically, US companies that hire H-1B workers already have a disproportionate number of American born Asian workers who end up competing against mostly foreign-born Asian workers.

For example, in 2022, 46.5% of Meta employees identified as Asian. Only 4.9% are black and 6.7% or Hispanic even after pushing for DEI at these companies. If we want to see more American blacks and Hispanics pursue careers in IT, we don't want the message on college campuses to be "why bother, a foreign worker will do your job for less".

We do need foreign workers to fill gaps in our workforce composition. But we need them as "placeholders" until a qualified American worker comes along. Regarding minorities, the issue according to a black IT executive I know is that too few minorities are concentrating in IT in college. A guest worker funded college scholarship program for children growing up in poverty could make a dent in that, especially if the scholarships were reserved for those professions for which H1B visas were being issued.