Work visas aren’t really a problem. Anyone who comes here has to pay for our cost of living so it can’t depress wages that much. The big problem is unqualified illegals swarming over the border to not work and get on welfare bennies. And if you want to be protectionist, companies sending jobs overseas is surely much more of a threat to our workers than people coming here with work visas. That allows them to reduce their labor costs much more severely.
If there are enough workers that can be brought in here to do a job, why should our laws try to freeze the amount of workers at a low rate and freeze those wages at an artificially high level? The whole purpose of an economy is to produce goods and services at the LOWEST possible cost. The purpose of production is to serve the consumer, not the worker.
Yeah? Tell that to some skilled lab technician who lost their job to someone from India on an H1-B visa willing to work for half the wage. There is absolutely no shortage of qualified Americans for such jobs but they are more expensive. Same as with lettuce pickers.