Trump Defends H-1B Visas as Needed Despite Moves to Raise Costs

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(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump said the US needed skilled workers from abroad even as his administration has taken steps to make it harder for businesses to use the visa system to attract such employees.

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In an interview with Fox News that aired Tuesday, Trump was pressed by host Laura Ingraham about H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers and whether his administration would make them less of a priority. Ingraham argued that visas would make it harder for Trump to achieve his goal of raising wages for US workers.

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“You also do have to bring in talent,” Trump countered.

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When Ingraham said the US already had “plenty of talented people here,” Trump responded “no.”

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“You don’t have certain talents. And you have to, people have to learn. You can’t take people off, like an unemployment line, and say, ‘I’m going to put you into a factory. We’re going to make missiles,’” he said.

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Trump’s comments arguing that some level of skilled workers are needed come after the administration earlier this year slapped a $100,000 application fee on the H-1B visa, which is widely used by some of the country’s largest companies, especially tech industry giants, to bring in workers from other countries. 

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That policy change drew a lawsuit from the US Chamber of Commerce, highlighting the clash between corporate America and Trump’s immigration crackdown. Trump in his second term has ramped up deportations of undocumented migrants, including through the deployment of troops to major cities to assist immigration officers, spurring worries about the impact on the labor supply for businesses. 

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Employers have also become less eager to sponsor international students’ work visas, targeting a pathway that saw many graduate from US universities and land positions with companies. 

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The immigration crackdown has also roiled ties between Washington and allies, including South Korea, and complicated efforts by Trump to convince foreign companies to invest more in the US. A September raid on a Hyundai Motor Co. and LG Energy Solution Ltd. electric battery plant in Georgia saw more than 300 South Korean workers detained amid allegations they were in the US illegally, sparking a rift with Seoul.

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“In Georgia, they raided because they wanted illegal immigrants,” Trump said, citing that incident in the Fox News interview. “They had people from South Korea that make batteries all their lives. You know, making batteries are very complicated. It’s not an easy thing, and very dangerous. A lot of explosions, lot of problems.”

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“You can’t just say a country is coming in, going to invest $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,” he added.

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio, after the incident, sought to assure South Korean officials that the US still welcomed investment from the country. Trump has previously said that he would work on a “whole new plan” to ensure that highly skilled workers could come to the US to help establish manufacturing plants.

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