Trump says he hasn’t changed his mind on H-1B visas as debate rages within MAGA coalition

President-elect Donald Trump insisted this week that he has not changed his mind on the controversial H-1B visa program and that the US needs “smart people” coming into the country, amid a furious intra-Republican debate over the visa program.

“I haven’t changed my mind. I’ve always felt that we need to have the most competent people in our country, and we need competent people,” Trump said at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday night. “We need smart people coming to our country. We need a lot of people coming. We’re going to have jobs like we’ve never had before.“

The H-1B visa program allows American companies to hire foreign workers for specialized occupations and is used by the vast majority by the technology industry. However, it has long been controversial for some conservatives, who say tech companies are abusing it to bring in cheap, mostly Indian labor to replace American workers.

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The program made headlines last week when Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who Trump picked to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, have argued for the importance of foreign workers for tech companies.

“The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that have made America strong is H1B,” Musk said on Xu.

That has reopened a rift between those on the right over the program and whether it is being used to attract top talent or is being used by companies to bring in cheaper, visa-tied labor.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., said on Fox News Sunday that H1-B visas are being “abused.”

“I think the abuses of the H-1B program were glaring, where the sons and daughters of those factory workers who lost their jobs got white collar jobs as accountants, and they, you know, train their replacements, the foreign workers who lower their wages,” he said.

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Trump has previously shown skepticism towards H-1B visa program. During his 2016 presidential campaign, he promised to crack down on abuse of the program and pointed to allegations of companies forcing Americans to train their cheaper replacements.

“The H-1B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration: they are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the express purpose of replacing lower-wage American workers. I remain fully committed to eliminating rampant, widespread H-1B abuse and ending outrageous practices like those that happened at Disney in Florida when the Americans were forced to train their foreign replacements,” he said in 2016.

“I will forever end the use of H-1B as a cheap labor program and impose an absolute requirement to hire American workers for every visa and immigration program. No exceptions,” he said.

He also said his companies use the H-1B program “and I shouldn’t be allowed to use it.”

His administration immediately began considering reforms to the H-1B visa program, and in 2020 proposed erasing rule which would prioritize the selection of higher-salary candidates for the approximately 85,000 visas awarded annually.

That rule would require registrants at the highest of the four salary levels to apply for a visa first. Once those at the highest level applied, the process would move to Level III, and so on until the slots were filled.

“Simply put, because the demand for H-1B visas has exceeded the annual supply for more than a decade, DHS prefers that H-1B visas with special restrictions go to beneficiaries who earn the highest wages relative to their [Standard Occupational Classification] codes and area(s) of intended employment,” the rule states.

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There was no rule went into effect thanks to the Biden administration, which abandoned it and has since proposed its own rule. However, it was greeted favorably by immigrant hawks. Other rules put forward during the Trump administration proposed narrowing the definition of “specialty occupation” and changing how the “prevailing wage” is set to ensure that American wages are not undermined.

The new Trump administration has not said specifically what it will do about H-1B and whether it will revive its first-term efforts. However, Musk proposed “significantly raising the minimum wage and adding annual costs to maintain H1Bs, making it materially more expensive to hire from abroad than domestically.”

“I’ve been very clear that the program is broken and needs major reform,” he said on Saturday.

At the same time, Trump said New York Post that the program is “great”.

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“I’ve always liked visas, I’ve always been in favor of visas. That’s why we have them,” Trump said.

“I have a lot of H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I’ve used it many times. It’s a great program.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.