US has to bring in talent from around the world: President Trump on H-1B visa

New York: In what is seen as a U-turn, US President Donald Trump appeared to defend the H-1B visa programme to bring talent from across the world, saying a foreign investor cannot pull people off an unemployment line, who haven't worked in five years, and start making missiles.

"I agree but you also do have to bring in talent," Trump said, responding to a question in an interview with Laura Ingraham on Fox News on whether the H-1B visa issue will not be a big priority for his administration and if one wants to raise wages for American workers as the country cannot be flooded with hundreds of thousands of foreign workers.

When Ingraham noted that "we have plenty of talent”, Trump said, "No, you don't, 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'," Trump added.

"In Georgia, they raided because they wanted illegal immigrants. 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.

“They had, like 500-600 people, early stages to make batteries and to teach people how to do it. Well, they wanted them to get out of the country. You're going to need that...I mean, I know you and I disagree on this.

“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,” the president said.

The Trump administration has launched a massive crackdown to check abuse in the H-1B visa programme, which is used by companies, particularly technology companies, to employ foreign workers in the US.

Indian professionals, including technology workers and physicians, are among the largest cohort of H-1B visa holders.

In September this year, Trump issued a Proclamation titled ‘Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers’ as an important initial step to reform the H-1B nonimmigrant visa programme.

Under the Proclamation, certain H-1B petitions filed after September 21, 2025, must be accompanied by an additional USD 100,000 payment as a condition of eligibility.

Last week, the Trump administration launched about 175 investigations into H-1B visa abuse, including lapses such as low wages, work sites that didn't exist and the practice of "benching" employees.

“As part of our mission to protect American Jobs, we've launched 175 investigations into H-1B abuse,” the US Department of Labour had said in a post on X.

It added that under the leadership of President Trump and Labour Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the agency will continue taking action to put American workers first.

Chavez-DeRemer said in a post on X that the Labour 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!”