Trump’s big turnaround on H-1B visas, says US needs foreign talent

Trump’s big turnaround on H-1B visas, says US needs foreign talent Washington, Nov 12 (IANS) US President Donald Trump defended the H-1B visa programme, saying the country needs foreign talent for certain industries. In an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Tuesday (local time), Trump was asked if his administration planned to deprioritise H-1B visas. He replied, “You do have to bring in talent.” When Ingraham countered, “We have plenty of talent,” Trump responded, “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,” he added. Trump’s statement comes even as he launched a crackdown on H-1B visas in September through a proclamation, imposing a hefty application fee of $100,000.

Last week, the US Department of Labor (DOL) launched at least 175 investigations into potential abuses within the H-1B visa programme, as part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to crack down on the foreign worker visa system. The initiative, dubbed ‘Project Firewall’, was launched in September to target companies allegedly exploiting the visa system, which allows US firms to hire foreign workers in speciality occupations such as information technology, engineering, and healthcare. “The Department of Labor is using every resource at our disposal to put a stop to H-1B abuse and protect American jobs,” the DOL Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a post on X.

In October, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that he was directing the state’s Board of Governors to end the use of H-1B visas across state universities, saying that positions currently held by visa holders should be filled by Florida residents. “Why are we bringing people in to assess our accreditation on an H-1B visa? We can’t do that with our own people?” DeSantis said, adding that the practice amounts to “cheap labour” and calling on university leaders to reassess hiring practices. Days later, the White House reiterated that President Donald Trump’s priority in reforming the H‑1B visa programme is to put “American workers first” and vowed to fight lawsuits filed against the administration’s crackdown. The administration’s H-1B visa policy has faced broad opposition from lawmakers and legal challenges with two major lawsuits filed in courts, including the one by the US Chamber of Commerce, the country’s biggest business organisation. On October 31, five US lawmakers wrote a letter to Trump, urging him to reconsider his September 19th proclamation on H-1B visas due to its “potentially negative impacts” on the India-US relationship. India-born workers received over 70 per cent of the total approved H1-B visas in 2024, primarily due to a huge backlog in approvals and a high number of skilled immigrants from India.