Trump says the U.S. needs foreign talent for industries lacking domestic skills.
His administration has launched 175 probes into alleged H-1B visa abuse.
New H-1B petitions after September 2025 require an added USD 100,000 fee.
U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to defend the H-1B visa programme, stating that the country must continue bringing in skilled workers from abroad because certain technical abilities are lacking domestically, PTI reported.
“I agree but you also do have to bring in talent,” Trump said in an interview with Laura Ingraham on Fox News when asked whether reforming the H-1B visa system would be a low priority for his administration. Ingraham had suggested that increasing wages for American workers required reducing the influx of foreign employees.
When Ingraham remarked that “we have plenty of talent,” Trump countered, “No, you don’t, no you don’t. You don’t have certain talents. And people have to learn.” He added, “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.’”
Citing an example from Georgia, Trump said authorities had conducted a raid targeting undocumented workers at a battery plant. “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.
According to Trump, around 500 to 600 skilled workers were involved in the early stages of setting up the battery manufacturing process and training others, but they were asked to leave the country. “You’re going to need that… 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,” he said.
While defending the need for specialised foreign talent, the Trump administration has also intensified oversight of the H-1B system to prevent misuse. The programme, widely used by technology firms to hire skilled foreign professionals, particularly from India, has been under review.
In September this year, Trump issued a Proclamation titled Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers, introducing reforms to the H-1B process. Under the new rules, petitions filed after 21 September 2025 must include an additional USD 100,000 payment as a condition of eligibility.
According to PTI, the administration recently initiated about 175 investigations into alleged H-1B visa abuse, including reports of underpayment, falsified worksites, and “benching” of employees.
“As part of our mission to protect American Jobs, we’ve launched 175 investigations into H-1B abuse,” the U.S. Department of Labour said in a post on X, noting that the actions were being undertaken under the leadership of President Trump and Labour Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
Chavez-DeRemer wrote on X that the 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!”
(With inputs from PTI)
