Two months after issuing a Proclamation that increased the annual H-1B visa fees among other reforms meant to curb the “abuse” of the worker visa programme, US President Donald Trump appeared to take a U-turn on his stance against the influx of foreign workers, saying America has to bring in talent from around the world to compensate for the lack of “certain talents” in the country.
“You also do have to bring in talent,” Trump said in an interview with a US TV channel, when asked whether the H-1B visa issue will not be a big priority for his administration and if one wants to raise wages for American workers, the country cannot be flooded with hundreds of thousands of foreign workers.
Trump said the country does not have “plenty of talent”, and that specific professions required highly-qualified individuals, alluding to the ICE raids on a battery-making factory in Georgia that resulting in the deportation of hundreds of South Korean engineers.
“No, you don’t, no you don’t. You don’t have certain talents. And people have to learn… You can’t take people off an unemployment line, and say, ‘I’m going to put you into a factory, we’re going to make missiles’,” the US President added.
“In Georgia, they raided because they wanted illegal immigrants. They had people from South Korea that made batteries all their lives. You know, making batteries (is) very complicated. It’s not an easy thing, and very dangerous. A lot of explosions, lot of problems,” he said, adding that about 500-600 people were in the “early stages” of teaching others to make batteries.
Also Read: US plans to impose additional fee on H-1B visas
“You can’t just say a country is coming in, going to invest USD 10 billion to build a plant and going to take people off an unemployment line who haven’t worked in five years, and they’re going to start making missiles. It doesn’t work that way,” the president said.
As part of the Trump administration’s massive crackdown to check “abuse” in the H-1B visa programme, which is used mostly by technology companies to employ foreign workers in the US, Indian professionals were hit the hardest, comprising a major chunk of individuals who travel to the US on the H-1B visa as technology workers and physicians among other professions.
In September this year, Trump issued a Proclamation titled ‘Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers’ as an important initial step to reform the H-1B nonimmigrant visa programme.
Under the Proclamation, certain H-1B petitions filed after September 21, 2025 must be accompanied by an additional USD 100,000 payment as a condition of eligibility.
Last week, his administration launched about 175 investigations into H-1B visa abuse, including lapses such as low wages, work sites that didn’t exist and the practice of “benching” employees.
“As part of our mission to protect American Jobs, we’ve launched 175 investigations into H-1B abuse,” the US Department of Labour had said in a post on X.
It added that under the leadership of President Trump and Labour Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the agency will continue taking action to put American workers first.
Chavez-DeRemer said in a post on X that the Labour Department “is using every resource at our disposal to put a stop to H-1B abuse and protect American Jobs. Under the leadership of @POTUS, we’ll continue to invest in our workforce and ensure high-skilled job opportunities go to American Workers FIRST!”
Follow us
