North Carolina Labor Commissioner Luke Farley is showing real courage and clarity at a time when too many elected officials are afraid to speak plainly. On April 21, 2026, he sent an official letter to the US Department of Labor strongly supporting a Trump administration proposal to reform the H-1B visa program.
In it, Commissioner Farley declared: “Right now, our workers are being hurt by foreign visa programs that depress wages.” He went further, stating that “loopholes in prevailing wage policy have made it easier for some employers to use foreign visa programs to fill jobs at wage levels below market rates.” The result, he warned, is “downward pressure on wages, fewer opportunities for American workers, and an economy that too often puts corporate labor cost-cutting ahead of our own people.”
That must end. And Farley is right to say so.
The H-1B program was never intended to function as it does today. Congress created it decades ago to bring in highly specialized foreign talent in those rare cases when Americans simply did not possess the required skills. The classic example is NASA’s Apollo program in the 1960s. When America was locked in a life-or-death space race with the Soviet Union, we turned to German rocket scientists such as Wernher von Braun and his team under Operation Paperclip.
These were extraordinary experts with capabilities no one else in the world possessed at the time. They did not undercut American wages or displace US engineers — they filled a genuine gap that helped us win the moon landing and secure our technological edge during the Cold War. That was the original intent of skilled immigration: to complement our workforce, not replace it.
Unfortunately, the H-1B program has been badly distorted over the years. Instead of serving as a narrow tool to import truly irreplaceable talent, it has too often become a convenient backdoor ticket for employers to import cheaper foreign labor. The result has been relentless downward pressure on wages and lost opportunities for American workers who are ready, willing, and able to fill those jobs if given a fair shot.
North Carolina has not been spared. In the Research Triangle — home to some of the nation’s most innovative companies — major employers including IBM and its Red Hat subsidiary have made heavy use of H-1B visas for technology, software development, and research roles. In Charlotte’s booming banking and financial services sector, similar patterns have played out. Time and again, North Carolina workers have watched their wages stagnate or their positions disappear while companies opted for lower-cost visa holders. The tired corporate excuse that “we can’t find qualified Americans” rings hollow. If Americans need the jobs, they will show up and they will work. What they need is a level playing field, not to be undercut on price by a program that was never designed to function as a cheap-labor pipeline.
Farley’s support for the proposed prevailing wage rule is an important and long-overdue step toward fixing this broken system. The rule would modernize how wages are calculated for H-1B, H-1B1, and E-3 visas, ensuring employers can no longer game the system by paying foreign workers significantly less than market rates for the same work. By raising the wage floor, it restores the program to its original, limited purpose: bringing in genuine high-skilled talent that does not displace or depress the wages of our own workers. Honest employers who truly need specialized skills they cannot find here will still be able to sponsor visas. But the incentive to treat H-1B as a discount-labor program will disappear. North Carolina workers win. Our families win. And our economy as a whole becomes stronger and fairer.
Farley might be the guy whose picture smiles at us from every elevator in North Carolina, but this action shows there is real substance behind the smile. This is pro-North Carolina first, pro-America first leadership in action. It underscores why it is so important for conservatives to hold every seat on the North Carolina Council of State. When leaders like Luke Farley are willing to stand up to corporate interests and fight for American workers, the entire state benefits.
North Carolinians deserve elected officials who will protect our jobs, our wages, and our future instead of offering corporate shortcuts. Commissioner Farley just proved he is exactly that kind of leader.