Corporations are trying, and now failing, to hide job openings from US citizens

Should Americans be prohibited from sharing open job opportunities with each other? The food-delivery platform Instacart seems to think so.

Step back in time for a moment to former President George H.W. Bush, who signed the Immigration Act of 1990 — a bill championed by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.). He promised that it would “dramatically” increase the number of immigrants to America and encourage migration by “exceptionally talented people.” 

Several new visa categories were created with that aim in mind, including the H-1B for foreign nationals working in “specialty occupations.” Companies such as Instacart can sponsor employees on H-1B visas to reside in the U.S. for up to six years. They can also sponsor them for permanent residence. (In fact, companies must sponsor their employees if they want to keep them around for more than six years.)

However, in order for applications for permanent residency to be successful, companies must certify their inability to find a suitable American candidate to take the position they’re looking to fill with a foreign national. Unsurprisingly, that means some companies have been incentivized to hide job openings from U.S. citizen and resident applicants.

As part of the permanent labor certification process that enables employers to convert migrants into permanent residents, companies are required to advertise the jobs in question, which a migrant has been performing, for at least 30 days.

What does it mean to “advertise”? Some companies have encountered trouble by getting too creative in probing that question. Meta, for example, had to shell out $13 million in 2021 to settle allegations that it discriminated against American applicants. It also includes Apple, which paid $25 million in 2023 to settle similar allegations.

According to the Justice Department, the companies absurdly required applicants to submit applications by mail, despite using an online process for positions they genuinely wanted to fill. In its settlement with Apple, the Justice Department noted that the requirement “nearly always resulted in zero or very few mailed applications that Apple considered” for these positions.  How many 20-something software engineers even know how to use a post office in 2025?

But these settlements haven’t been enough to deter hundreds of other companies from engaging in similar questionable practices. And this has given rise to a cottage industry of chronically-online types — in other words, typical tech workers — seeking to expose them. 

“We’re personally aware of major companies that have significant immigrant workforces, but that are laying off and firing American citizens,” a spokesperson for Jobs.now, one group involved in the effort, told me. “We think it’s unfair when many Americans are struggling to find work.”

The group claims that it has posted more than 3,800 jobs since it launched at the beginning of the year from companies including Meta, Stripe, and other companies that seemingly took unusual measures to conceal job opening. Those measures might include unusual application instructions — such as the guidance by online-learning platform Udemy to submit applications to “Immigration@Udemy.com” — or instructions to exclusively send paper applications, something that no serious employer has done in decades. 

Offenders in the latter basket include Instacart, which became notable this month for becoming unusually aggressive in fighting to keep job openings out of public view.

In a Sept. 4 cease-and-desist delivered to Jobs.now by Instacart and shared with The Hill, the company claimed that unfettered sharing of its job openings constitutes “a misappropriation and violation of the rights of Instacart.” The letter also takes the unusual step of asking the group to “suspend” its website, while adding that “damages” it has incurred by the apparent influx of applicants “entitle Instacart to various forms of relief, including monetary compensation.”

Instacart didn’t respond to my request for comment. 

Jobs.now said it was complying with the demand to stop posting Instacart’s job openings while it examined legal options. In a statement, the group called the letter an “an intimidation tactic” to “silence free speech promoting job openings to American citizens.”

So at least Instacart is still creating jobs for the legal community. Who would have guessed that trademark laws would become a vehicle for concealing job openings from American citizens?

While we’re asking questions, maybe we should ask whether it makes sense for U.S. immigration policy to confer citizenship upon millions of foreign nationals only if their employers can hide job openings and prevent Americans from objecting. Should the system rely so heavily on asking out-of-work Americans to act as goalies — if or when they happen to have the time?

Policymakers should consider updating the Immigration Act of 1990. Perhaps companies should be made to look for qualified U.S. workers before they hire foreign nationals. Congress could also remove U.S. residency as an option for the foreign employees under this program. These are measures that should have been in place from the start, and they would reduce frustration for all parties involved.

Rudy Takala has served as an editor for Fox News and The Hill and as a reporter for the Washington Examiner.