I like competent people coming to the US: Trump amid H-1B visa debate

Washington: US President Donald Trump has said he likes both sides of the argument on the H-1B foreign guest workers' visa, noting that the country needs "very competent" and "great" people which is possible through this visa programme.

Trump also said that he has also used the H-1B visa programme.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

"I like both sides of the argument, but I also like very competent people coming into our country, even if that involves them training and helping other people who may not have the qualifications they do. But I don't want to stop -- and I'm not just talking about engineers, I'm talking about people at all levels," Trump said on Tuesday.

He made these remarks while talking to reporters at the White House during a joint news conference with Oracle CTO Larry Ellison, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, and Open AI CEO Sam Altman.

The president was responding to a question on the ongoing debate on H-1B visas within his support base.

Indians are the main beneficiaries of the H-1B visas, which bring in the best of the talent and brains from across the world. Highly skilled professionals from India walk away with the overwhelming number of H-1B visas - which is Congressional mandated 65,0000 every year and another 20,000 for those who received higher education from the US.

While his close confidants like Elon Musk, the Tesla owner, support H-1B visas as they bring in qualified tech professionals, many of his supporters oppose it arguing that it takes away jobs from Americans.

"We want competent people coming into our country. And H-1B, I know the programme very well. I use the programme. Maitre d', wine experts, even waiters, high-quality waiters -- you've got to get the best people. People like Larry, he needs engineers, Masa also needs... they need engineers like nobody's ever needed them," Trump said.

"So, we have to have quality people coming in. Now by doing that, we're expanding businesses and that takes care of everybody. So I'm sort of on both sides of the argument, but what I really do feel is that we have to let really competent people, great people, come into our country. And we do that through the H-1B programme," Trump said.

Since December, the debate on foreign guest workers visas for highly skilled professionals, the H-1B, has intensified which has literally created divisions in both the Democratic and the Republican parties.

Such a backlash initially came from the supporters of Trump who argued that this is eating away at the jobs of Americans. Both Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy immediately weighed in and supported the H-1B visas.

However, influential Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders asserted that the two close confidants of Trump are wrong.

The debate appeared to originate from a suggestion last month from Sriram Krishnan, Trump’s pick for White House policy adviser on artificial intelligence, that Musk examines removing caps on green cards for skilled immigrants.