US President Trump says abuse of H-1B programme a ‘national security threat’

New York: US President Donald Trump said abuse of the H-1B programme is a national security threat as he signed a proclamation restricting entry of certain non-immigrant workers and imposing a staggering annual USD 100,000 fee on the visas used by companies to hire workers, including from India, to live and work in the US.

Trump on Friday signed the proclamation ‘Restriction on entry of certain nonimmigrant workers’ that restricts the entry into the US of those workers whose H1B petitions are not accompanied or supplemented by a payment of USD 100,000.  “The H-1B nonimmigrant visa programme was created to bring temporary workers into the United States to perform additive, high-skilled functions, but it has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labour,” Trump said in the proclamation.

“The abuse of the H-1B programme is also a national security threat. Domestic law enforcement agencies have identified and investigated H-1B-reliant outsourcing companies for engaging in visa fraud, conspiracy to launder money... and other illicit activities to encourage foreign workers to come to the United States,” he said in the proclamation.

Trump said that it is necessary to impose higher costs on companies seeking to use the H-1B programme in order to address the abuse of that programme while still permitting companies to hire the best of the best temporary foreign workers.

“The severe harms that the large-scale abuse of this programme has inflicted on our economic and national security demand an immediate response. I therefore find that the unrestricted entry into the United States of certain foreign workers” would be detrimental to the interests of the United States because such entry would harm American workers, including by undercutting their wages,” the proclamation said.

Trump ordered that the Secretary of Homeland Security shall restrict decisions on petitions not accompanied by a USD 100,000 payment for H-1B speciality occupation workers, who are currently outside the United States, for 12 months following the effective date of the proclamation, which is September 21, 2025.

The Secretary of State shall also issue guidance, as necessary and to the extent permitted by law, to prevent misuse of B visas by alien beneficiaries of approved H-1B petitions that have an employment start date beginning prior to October 1, 2026.

It said the restrictions shall not apply to any individual or those working for a company or in an industry, if it is determined that the hiring of such individuals to be employed as H-1B speciality occupation workers is in the national interest and does not pose a threat to the security or welfare of the United States.

The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State shall coordinate to take all necessary and appropriate action to implement this proclamation and to deny entry to the United States to any H-1B nonimmigrant for whom the prospective employer has not made the payment.  The restriction on entry shall apply only to those individuals who enter or attempt to enter the United States after September 21, 2025.

Trump said the large-scale replacement of American workers through systemic abuse of the programme has undermined both American economic and national security.  “Some employers, using practices now widely adopted by entire sectors, have abused the H-1B statute and its regulations to artificially suppress wages, resulting in a disadvantageous labour market for American citizens, while at the same time making it more difficult to attract and retain the highest skilled subset of temporary workers, with the largest impact seen in critical science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields,” Trump said.

The proclamation said that Information technology firms in particular have prominently manipulated the H-1B system, significantly harming American workers in computer-related fields.  Noting that the share of IT workers in the H-1B programme grew from 32 per cent in Fiscal Year 2003 to an average of over 65 per cent in the last 5 fiscal years, the proclamation said that some of the most prolific H-1B employers are now consistently IT outsourcing companies.   It said that abuse of the H-1B visa programme has made it even more challenging for college graduates trying to find IT jobs, allowing employers to hire foreign workers at a significant discount to American workers.

The proclamation cited high unemployment rates among computer science and computer engineering majors and said many American tech companies have laid off their qualified and highly skilled American workers and simultaneously hired thousands of H-1B workers.   The proclamation also cited the example of a software company that was approved for over 5,000 H-1B workers in FY 2025, and which, around the same time, announced a series of layoffs totalling more than 15,000 employees.  It also said that American IT workers have reported they were forced to train the foreign workers who were taking their jobs and to sign nondisclosure agreements about this “indignity” as a condition of receiving any form of severance.