White House clarifies over H-1B visas after Trump defends programme

Washington, Nov 13 (IANS) A day after US President Donald Trump defended the H-1B visa programme, the White House asserted that it’s committed to cracking down on alleged abuses in the visa system.

The White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted the clarification to Daily Wire, a news outlet, on X. In a statement to the publication, White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers, on Wednesday, said that the administration was committed to “reforming the immigration system.”

“In record time, President Trump has done more than any president in modern history to tighten our immigration laws and put American workers first,” Rogers said.

“The $100,000 payment required to supplement new H-1B visa applications is a significant first step to stop abuses of the system and ensure American workers are no longer replaced by lower-paid foreign labor.”

In an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Tuesday, 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.

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 specialty 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.

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.

--IANS

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