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New Delhi: US President Donald Trump said United States needs skilled professionals from abroad, even as his administration has tightened visa rules, making it harder for companies to hire foreign workers.
In an interview with Fox News aired on Tuesday, host Laura Ingraham asked Trump whether his administration planned to reduce the priority of H-1B visas for skilled foreign employees. Ingraham argued that allowing more such visas could undermine Trump’s objective of increasing wages for American workers.
“You also do have to bring in talent,” Trump countered.
When Ingraham insisted that the US already had “plenty of talented people here,” Trump disagreed, saying “no.”
“You don’t have certain talents. And you have to, people have to learn. You can’t take people off, like an unemployment line, and say, ‘I’m going to put you into a factory. We’re going to make missiles,’” he said.
Trump’s comments come months after his administration imposed a USD 100,000 application fee on the H-1B visa, a move that sparked legal action from the US Chamber of Commerce. The visa is widely used by major companies, particularly in the tech sector, to bring skilled workers from other countries. The policy highlighted growing tensions between corporate America and Trump’s hardline immigration stance.
During his second term, Trump has intensified deportations of undocumented immigrants and deployed federal troops to assist immigration officers in major cities. The crackdown has raised concerns over potential labor shortages and discouraged employers from sponsoring work visas for international students, a key route for many foreign graduates entering the US workforce.
The stricter immigration approach has also strained Washington’s relations with key allies such as South Korea. A raid earlier this year at a Hyundai Motor Co. and LG Energy Solution Ltd. electric battery plant in Georgia led to the detention of over 300 South Korean workers accused of being in the US illegally, triggering diplomatic friction with Seoul.
“In Georgia, they raided because they wanted illegal immigrants,” Trump said, referring to the incident. “They had people from South Korea that make batteries all their lives. You know, making batteries are very complicated. It’s not an easy thing, and very dangerous. A lot of explosions, lot of problems.”
He further added, “You can’t just say a country is coming in, going to invest $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.”
Following the controversy, Secretary of State Marco Rubio reassured South Korean officials that the US continued to welcome investments from their country. Trump has also reiterated his intent to develop a “whole new plan” to enable highly skilled professionals to contribute to the establishment of advanced manufacturing facilities in the US.
