Trump, who slapped an extra $100,000 on the H-1B visa, now says there aren’t enough talented people in the U.S. to fill jobs
President Donald Trump appears to be softening his stance on one of his stricter immigration policies, emphasizing the importance of H-1B visas for specialized labor just months after introducing measures to limit their issuance.
In an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham released Sunday, Trump acknowledged that while bringing in large numbers of foreign workers could suppress wages for American employees, the U.S. workforce is still falling short in certain critical areas.
“You don’t have certain talents, and people have to learn,” Trump said. “You can’t just say a country is coming in, going to invest $10 billion to build a plant and take people off an unemployment line who haven’t worked in five years and they’re going to start making their missiles. It doesn’t work that way.”
In September, the White House introduced a one-time $100,000 fee on H-1B visas, which are commonly used by high-skilled workers in the tech sector. Critics, including Y Combinator CEO Gary Tan, warned that the fee could “kneecap” startups and smaller companies that rely on international talent. Research from the National Bureau of Economic Research has shown that startups with higher H-1B visa rates are more likely to secure funding, patents, or reach an IPO.
Nearly 400,000 H-1B visas were approved in fiscal 2024—double the number granted in 2020. Prominent tech figures, such as Elon Musk, have long championed H-1B visas for attracting top global talent, though they have opposed steep fees like the one recently imposed.
When the visa fee was first announced, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick defended it as a measure to prioritize training American workers. “If you’re going to train people, you’re going to train Americans,” Lutnick said. “If you have a very sophisticated engineer and you want to bring them in…then you can pay $100,000 a year for your H-1B visa.”
Economists caution that Trump’s broader immigration restrictions could shrink the U.S. labor force and reduce consumer spending, potentially slowing GDP growth. A recent National Foundation for American Policy study projected that these policies could cut the U.S. workforce by 15.7 million and reduce GDP growth by one-third over the next decade.
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