Washington, Nov 18: US President Donald Trump once again defended the H-1B visas, saying overseas workers are needed to train American workers.

“If you are going to be making chips, we don’t make chips too much here anymore. We are going to be…in a period of a year, we are going to have a big portion of the chip market. But we have to train our people how to make chips. We used to do it, and foolishly we lost that business to Taiwan,” Trump said while addressing reporters at the White House.

Last week, Trump, in an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, supported the H-1B visa programme. When asked if his administration planned to deprioritise H-1B visas. He replied, “You do have to bring in talent.”

Also read: India’s Agri Exports Worth $1 Bn Exempted From Tariff Hike In New Trump Waiver

When Ingraham countered, “We have plenty of talent,” Trump responded, “No, you don’t.” “You don't have certain talents….And people have to learn, you can't take people off an unemployment line and say, I'm going to put you into a factory. We're going to make missiles,” he added.

Trump's comment sparked an intense debate with leading Republican and conservative leaders demanding the scrapping of the visa programme.

The White House on Friday clarified its position on the visa policy, telling IANS that the $100,000 application fee is a “significant first step to stop abuses of the system.”

In an exclusive response to IANS, a White House spokesperson said that President Donald Trump has “done more than any president in modern history to tighten our immigration laws and put American workers first.”

“The $100,000 payment required to supplement new H1-B visa applications is a significant first step to stop abuses of the system and ensure American workers are no longer replaced by lower-paid foreign labor,” White House Spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told IANS.

She also highlighted the recently launched “Project Firewall” to investigate companies flouting the H-1B visa rules.

“The Department of Labor launched Project Firewall as a new enforcement initiate [initiative] to investigate companies that have abused the H1-B visa system.

The Trump administration is protecting American workers by restoring accountability in the H1-B process, ensuring that it is used to bring in only the highest-skilled foreign workers in speciality occupations and not low-wage workers that will displace Americans.” Rogers added.

On Friday, Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X, reiterating her plans to introduce a bill to “ban H1B visas in all sectors” except the medical profession.

“Ending H1B visas will also help the housing market. Ending H1B visas mean more jobs available for Americans and more homes available for Americans…When Americans have good-paying jobs they will be able to buy homes as long as they don’t have to compete with legally imported labor on visas and rich powerful asset management companies,” she added.

Another Republican House member, Andy Ogles, also posted on X on Friday, “No more H1-Bs is a no-brainer. Let's get it done.”

The administration’s H-1B visa policy has faced broad opposition from lawmakers and legal challenges with two major lawsuits filed in courts, including the one by the US Chamber of Commerce, the country’s biggest business organisation.

On October 31, five US lawmakers wrote a letter to Trump, urging him to reconsider his September 19th proclamation on H-1B visas due to its “potentially negative impacts” on the India-US relationship.

India-born workers received over 70 per cent of the total approved H1-B visas in 2024, primarily due to a huge backlog in approvals and a high number of skilled immigrants from India.

(IANS)