Owen Cass in 2020 founded American Compass, a conservative think tank which describes itself as the conservative labor movement. Cass has been articulating a coherent strategy for immigration; neither the Democratic nor Republican Party have.

In a 2023 essay, “Jobs Americans would do,”, he begins be citing labor shortages

California’s Central Valley, and in Californian for computer programmers.  He notes that over the past five decades, productivity and corporate profits have surged, while wages for most workers have stagnated. Employers will only raise wages when they cannot hire at current rates, emphasizing the need for policies that limit labor supply to drive wage growth. He proposes a reform in immigration policy, particularly by reducing the influx of low-wage workers, which currently dilutes labor market pressures, and also by reducing or eliminating temporary worker permits for both low and high skilled workers.  This he say will lead to better wages and conditions for domestic workers. He proposed a high-wage immigration system. He says these changes will  improve the labor market with better wages and working conditions, viewing them as central to a healthy economy.

He concludes, “The American economy has not failed in recent decades with respect to the material standard of living. The failure has been the creation of insecure jobs that do not meet workers’ needs, a shift in the economy-wide distribution of income that has left working families struggling, and a decay in social solidarity as the economy’s winners declare themselves most valuable and the losers expendable. Only the power for workers that comes from being needed will reverse those trends.”