In a recent proclamation, President Donald Trump has accused American companies of favoring foreign visa workers over skilled American graduates, citing economic and national security concerns.
"The H-1B nonimmigrant visa program has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor," Trump declared, adding, "The large-scale replacement of American workers through systemic abuse of the program has undermined both our economic and national security."
According to Breitbart, the proclamation, titled "Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers," has directed agencies to begin repairing the nation's professional sector by imposing a $100,000 fee for each foreigner hired through the H-1B program. The directive also calls for federal agencies to reduce fraud and exclude foreign workers from the career-starting jobs needed by talented U.S. graduates.
This proclamation marks a significant event in Washington D.C., where the scale and damage of investor-backed visa programs have long been overlooked. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick conveyed the proclamation's message to U.S. employers, stating, "Youre going to train one of the recent graduates from one of the great universities across our land, train Americans Stop bringing in people to take our jobs. Thats the policy here."
Despite substantial evidence, journalists have largely ignored the extensive damage inflicted on U.S. innovation and families by this foreign workforce. The proclamation reveals that 2.5 million visa workers currently occupy one-in-four tech jobs that would otherwise be held by American graduates.
If implemented, this new pro-American policy is likely to be welcomed by millions of American professionals, many of whom have been sidelined as foreign-born hiring managers discreetly sell jobs to Indian graduates via online markets. These markets are often obscured by Indian languages and laws, corporate support, and tacit federal agreement.
"The stress of rejection is unbearable, along with the looming threat of financial insecurity," expressed sidelined professional Katie Gallagher to the New York Times. "I have never felt depression like this before in my life."
However, the implementation of these agency tasks may prove challenging as lawyers for H-1B companies have already identified loopholes in the Presidents proclamation. "This is only for the new H-1Bs coming from outside the country," explained Rehul Reddy, a Texas-based lawyer who works with many companies that employ visa workers. "If somebody is already in the United States, if they are filing for a [three-year] extension of H-1B status, this proclamation is not applicable," he added.
The majority of H-1Bs extend their status every three years, creating a massive workforce of at least 700,000 H-1Bs in jobs that would otherwise go to American graduates. "The wording of the H-1B fee proclamation is very vague," noted immigration lawyer Leon Fresco. "But it appears this $100,000 fee will not apply to foreign students at U.S. universities who are changing their status" from F-1 student visas to H-1B or J-1 visas, Fresco added.
The university angle is crucial as George W. Bushs Optional Practical Training (OPT) and Curricular Practical Training (CPT) programs granted tax-exempt work permits to roughly 400,000 foreign graduates in 2024. That total is approximately three times as many new H-1B visas granted in 2024.
Many of these CPT and OPT graduates secure career-starting jobs via their ethnic hiring networks, often with promises to kick back part of their salaries to hiring managers. This discriminatory black-market in U.S. jobs pushes skilled American graduates out of tech careers and future management jobs.
The presidents instruction also allows officials to exempt industries from the new H-1B curbs. "It will be interesting to see who gets an exemption," Fresco remarked, who also works as a lobbyist for some of the roughly 600,000 resident Indian visa workers who are working while waiting to get an employer-approved green card.
"Subsection (c) is the key pretty much any employer can make an argument their H-1B worker is in the national interest,'" observed lawyer Paul Herzog. All three lawyers predict extensive lawsuits over many aspects of the eventual new rules.
"Trumps $100,000 H-1B Fee Invites Immediate Legal Challenges," read a headline in the pro-migration Bloomberg news site. The policy "could also have devastating effects on businesses," the site reported.
"We need workers, we need great workers, and this pretty much ensures that is what is going to happen," Trump said as he signed the proclamation while Lutnick stood beside him. Trump has zig-zagged on the visa-worker issue, sometimes urging more migrants, and sometimes calling for more robots and fewer migrants.
Stephen Miller, the White Houses leading migration expert, did not participate in this Oval Office announcement.
Trumps proclamation does not explicitly reserve U.S. jobs for American graduates. For instance, the President also proposed a plan for a so-called Gold Card to be purchased by potential immigrants at $1 million per card.
The document stated, "It is a priority of my Administration to realign Federal immigration policy with the Nations interests by ending illegal immigration and prioritizing the admission of aliens[emphasis added], including successful entrepreneurs, investors, and businessmen and women."
"The proclamation isnt terrible, but it falls short of truly helping American workers and STEM graduates," commented U.S. Tech Workers, a lobby group for American professionals. The group added, "Companies like Google and Microsoft wont be affected, because they source their foreign workers through L-1 visas or from those who arrived on student visas. So when @howardlutnick [Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick] said tech companies support it, now we know why."
If the Trump administration genuinely wants to help American tech workers and STEM graduates, it needs to end the OPT program, which was created entirely through regulation. Otherwise, it isnt serious about fixing this issue.
Breitbart News has posted roughly 1,000 articles on the H-1B visa program since 2015. Breitbart has also published hundreds of other articles on the many additional white-collar visa and work-permit programs that redirect jobs and careers away from Americans and largely towards Indian hiring networks.
The White House proclamation included new data about the foreign workforce that far exceeded Breitbart News estimate of the white-collar outsourcing programs.
The program has helped foreign workers take one of every four jobs in the U.S. science, technology, and engineering sector, the proclamation says. The program helped foreigners grab two out of every three information-technology jobs, partly because of rapid growth during the Biden years, the document says.
The document noted that U.S. multinationals are firing skilled American professionals and filling the empty jobs with imported, cheap, and compliant white-collar workers.
Many Indian visa workers fear the proclamation will force them to return. "The gravy train is up, youre all going home," one American said during an online meeting of many Indian visa workers. Other Indians, however, boast that Americas economy will collapse if the Indians are forced home.
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