New York/Washington: US President Donald Trump has a “very nuanced and commonsense opinion” on the issue of H-1B visas and does not support American workers being replaced, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
To a question on American workers being replaced with H-1B visa holders and Trump’s position on it, Leavitt said the President’s stance on the issue has been mischaracterised.
On the H-1B visa issue, Leavitt said Trump “has a very nuanced and commonsense opinion on this issue. He wants to see if foreign companies are investing trillions of dollars in the United States of America, and they’re bringing foreign workers with them to create very niche things like batteries. He wants to see that at the beginning to get those manufacturing facilities and those factories up and running.”
She said that ultimately, Trump always wants to see American workers in those jobs, and he’s told foreign companies investing in the country that they “better be hiring my people if you’re going to be doing business in the United States. So there’s been a lot of misunderstanding of the President’s position.”
Leavitt added that the President wants to see the American manufacturing industry revitalised better than ever before.
“That’s part of what he’s doing with his effective use of tariffs and cutting good trade deals around the world. That’s why he’s recruited trillions and trillions of dollars in investments into our country. Those are creating good-paying American jobs right here at home,” she said.
Amid backlash over the H-1B visas by Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) supporters, the President has said that he would “welcome” skilled immigrants into the country who will then “teach” American workers to develop complex products like chips and missiles, acknowledging that he may take a “little heat” over this from his base which supports restrictions on immigration.
Trump has said that a large number of plants, including “extremely complex” ones, are being built in the US now that will contribute significantly to the country’s economic growth.
He added that, given the complex nature of products that will be manufactured in these plants, companies will have to bring in skilled workers from abroad who can then share their knowledge and teach American workers.
“But if you have to bring people to get those plants opened, we want you to do that, and we want those people to teach our people how to make computer chips and how to make other things,” Trump has said.
Trump explained that the companies, which are building massive computer chip factories for billions of dollars, can’t just “hire people off an unemployment line to run it.”
“They’re going to have to bring thousands of people with them, and I’m going to welcome those people,” Trump added.
Trump has said that a company cannot open up a big computer chip plant “with people that don’t even know what a chip looks like.”
He had defended the H-1B visa programme, saying America has to bring in talent from around the world as it does not have “certain talents” in the country.
Companies use visas such as H-1B and L1 to hire skilled foreign workers for speciality occupations in the US. The Trump administration has launched an intense crackdown on illegal immigration, and the President’s supporters have also called for cracking down on H-1B visas, citing widespread abuse and fraud in the programme amid allegations that H-1B visa holders are rendering Americans unemployed.
