The White House said Trump has a nuanced stance on H-1B visas, insisting he opposes “American workers being replaced.”
Trump says foreign workers are needed temporarily for “extremely complex” factories and must “teach” Americans specialised skills.
Facing MAGA criticism, he defended welcoming talent while emphasising that companies investing in the US must ultimately hire Americans.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that US President Donald Trump has a "very nuanced and commonsense opinion" regarding H-1B visas and opposes replacing American labour.
Speaking to reporters in the White House on Monday, Leavitt stated, "The President does not support American workers being replaced."
Leavitt responded that Trump's view on the replacement of American workers with H-1B visa holders has been misrepresented.
On the H-1B visa issue, Leavitt said Trump “has a very nuanced and commonsense opinion on this issue. He wants to see if foreign companies are investing trillions of dollars in the United States of America, and they're bringing foreign workers with them to create very niche things like batteries, he wants to see that at the beginning to get those manufacturing facilities and those factories up and running.”
She said that ultimately, Trump always wants to see American workers in those jobs, and he's told foreign companies investing in the country that they “better be hiring my people if you're going to be doing business in the United States. So there's been a lot of misunderstanding of the President's position.”
Leavitt added that the President wants to see the American manufacturing industry revitalised better than ever before. “That's part of what he's doing with his effective use of tariffs and cutting good trade deals around the world. That's why he's recruited trillions and trillions of dollars in investments into our country. Those are creating good-paying American jobs right here at home,” she said.
In response to criticism from Trump's MAGA (Make America Great Again) supporters regarding the H-1B visas, the president stated that he would "welcome" skilled immigrants into the nation who would then "teach" American workers to develop complex products like chips and missiles. He acknowledged that he might receive "little heat" for this from his base, which supports immigration restrictions.
According to Trump, numerous factories, including "extremely complex" ones, are currently being constructed in the US and will greatly boost the nation's economy. He continued by saying that because of the complexity of the goods that will be produced in these facilities, businesses will need to hire competent foreign workers who can subsequently impart their skills to American workers.
“But if you have to bring people to get those plants opened, we want you to do that, and we want those people to teach our people how to make computer chips and how to make other things,” Trump has said. Trump explained that the companies, which are building massive computer chip factories for billions of dollars, can’t just “hire people off an unemployment line to run it.” “They're going to have to bring thousands of people with them, and I'm going to welcome those people,” Trump added.
Trump has said that a company cannot open up a big computer chip plant “with people that don't even know what a chip looks like.” He had defended the H-1B visa programme, saying America has to bring in talent from around the world as it does not have “certain talents” in the country.
Employers hire qualified foreign workers for specialised jobs in the US using visas like H-1B and L1. Citing widespread fraud and misuse in the program and claims that H-1B visa holders are making Americans unemployed, the Trump administration has initiated a vigorous crackdown on illegal immigration. The President's supporters have also called for a crackdown on H-1B visas.
