President-elect Donald Trump has announced his position on the H-1B visa, which imports hundreds of thousands of foreign workers, mainly from India, to work specialty occupations. His statements starkly contrast his first term, where he emphasized the need to prioritize American workers and "America First" policies. His first administration implemented several measures, including stricter eligibility criteria, increased scrutiny of applications, and reduced visa approvals, to ensure that American workers were not displaced or underpaid.
Trump said he has many H-1B visas employed on his properties and believes in the “great” program.
“I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas,” Trump told the New York Post. “That’s why we have them.”
Trump, who was previously critical of foreign worker visas during his first administration, agreed with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who argued that the program is crucial for enabling American companies to access highly skilled labor that may be scarce within the U.S. workforce and should be expanded to meet growing demands.
However, critics say the program prioritizes H-1B holders over U.S. citizens for American jobs. According to reports, there are about 650,000 H-1B visa foreign workers in America at any time. U.S. citizens are often laid off and forced to train their foreign replacements.
Musk, however, has doubled down on his support for the program, slamming a social media user who criticized the billionaire's stance on the H-1B visa.
“The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla, and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B," Musk wrote on X.
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Ramaswamy echoed Musk’s sentiments: "American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence.”
Breitbart News reported that in 2015, Trump laid out key visa program reforms, such as increasing the wage for issuing visas to attract Americans to corporate positions rather than foreigners.
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