Feds: Corporation Imported Foreign Workers to take U.S. Manufacturing Jobs over Hiring Qualified Americans

The Igloo Products Corporation, known for producing ice chests, coolers, and other products, imported foreign visa workers to take United States manufacturing jobs over hiring qualified Americans, a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation finds.

On Monday, federal prosecutors announced a settlement with Igloo after they say the corporation imported foreign workers through the H-2B visa program to take U.S. jobs that could have gone to Americans.

According to the investigation, Igloo based in Katy, Texas, discriminated against Americans from at least July 1, 2019, to September 10, 2019, when it hired H-2B foreign visa workers for manufacturing jobs while passing over qualified locals.

“Employers cannot favor workers on temporary visas and ignore applications from qualified U.S. workers because of assumptions based on citizenship or immigration status,” Kristen Clarke, of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.

As part of its settlement, Igloo must pay $21,000 in civil penalties to the federal government and pay $40,000 in back pay to Americans who were passed over for the manufacturing jobs. Igloo will also have to change its hiring policies to ensure it seeks out Americans for jobs while being monitored for three years by the DOJ.

Every year, businesses are allowed to import 66,000 H-2B foreign visa workers to take blue-collar, non-agricultural jobs in the U.S. Former President Donald Trump’s administration routinely brought in additional H-2B foreign visa workers for whom business could hire, and President Joe Biden’s administration is doing the same.

The H-2B visa program has been widely used by businesses to drag down the wages of American workers in landscaping, conservation work, the meatpacking industry, the construction industry, and fishing jobs, a 2019 study from the Center for Immigration Studies finds.

When comparing the wages of H-2B foreign workers to the national wage average for each blue-collar industry, about 21 out of 25 of the industries offered lower wages to foreign workers than Americans.

Annually, the U.S. gives green cards to about 1.2 million legal immigrants while another 1.4 million foreign workers are admitted every year to take American jobs.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.