Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: 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.
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. 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 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.” 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 said.
