I'd rather have neither. I'd rather not import foreign labor to compete with Americans for housing, jobs, wages, healthcare, political power etc. This is a zero-sum game, the nation and its economy exists for the benefit of its citizens not to provide prosperity to people who don't live here.
I think the assumption of it being a zero-sum game is wrong. Almost half of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children [0]. The source is still the American Immigration Council, but even just looking at a specific example can illustrate that it might not be a zero sum game.
Jensen Huang, the co-founder and now CEO of NVIDIA, was an immigrant. NVIDIA is one of the most valuable companies today and has generated thousand of jobs and has helped create the AI revolution happening right now. You can argue that some other American born citizen would have created NVIDIA or found the same success, but that is difficult to prove.
I fundamentally disagree that this is a zero sum game. Many immigrants add to the American experience and many become citizens themselves. The country loses out in ignoring foreign labor, especially if it’s foreigners who are taught in our schools and want to come and work here.
