'National security': Why Trump imposed $100,000 fee per year on H-1B visas

US President Donald Trump connected Friday said that maltreatment of the H-1B visa programme poses a “threat to nationalist security” aft helium signed a proclamation restricting the introduction of definite skilled overseas workers.

The caller bid imposes a $100,000 interest connected companies hiring these workers to unrecorded and enactment successful the United States. “The maltreatment of the H-1B programme is besides a nationalist information threat. Domestic instrumentality enforcement agencies person identified and investigated H-1B-reliant outsourcing companies for engaging successful visa fraud, conspiracy to launder money... and different illicit activities to promote overseas workers to travel to the United States,” helium said. The proclamation, titled “Restriction connected introduction of definite nonimmigrant workers”, limits introduction into the US for H-1B workers whose petitions are not accompanied by the $100,000 payment.

'Program primitively designed for high-skilled workers'

“The H-1B nonimmigrant visa programme was created to bring impermanent workers into the United States to execute additive, high-skilled functions, but it has been deliberately exploited to replace, alternatively than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labour,” Trump said successful the proclamation, arsenic quoted by PTI.

“The terrible harms that the large-scale maltreatment of this programme has inflicted connected our economical and nationalist information request an contiguous response. I truthful find that the unrestricted introduction into the United States of definite overseas workers would beryllium detrimental to the interests of the United States due to the fact that specified introduction would harm American workers, including by undercutting their wages,” the proclamation said. He added that higher costs for companies are needed to code maltreatment portion inactive allowing firms to prosecute “the champion of the champion impermanent overseas workers.”

'Tech and STEM fields astir impacted'

“Some employers, utilizing practices present wide adopted by full sectors, person abused the H-1B statute and its regulations to artificially suppress wages, resulting successful a disadvantageous labour marketplace for American citizens, portion astatine the aforesaid clip making it much hard to pull and clasp the highest skilled subset of impermanent workers, with the largest interaction seen successful captious science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields,” helium said. The proclamation highlighted that IT firms “have prominently manipulated the H-1B system, importantly harming American workers successful computer-related fields.” The stock of IT workers successful H-1B programs grew from 32% successful Fiscal Year 2003 to implicit 65% successful the past 5 fiscal years. “Some of the astir prolific H-1B employers are present consistently IT outsourcing companies,” the proclamation said.

Challenges for American graduates

Abuse of the programme has made it much hard for US assemblage graduates to find IT jobs, arsenic companies prosecute overseas workers “at a important discount to American workers.” The proclamation cited precocious unemployment among machine subject and machine engineering graduates and noted galore American tech companies “have laid disconnected their qualified and highly skilled American workers and simultaneously hired thousands of H-1B workers.” It besides highlighted a bundle institution approved for implicit 5,000 H-1B workers successful FY 2025, which “announced a bid of layoffs totalling much than 15,000 employees.” American IT workers person reported they were forced to “train the overseas workers who were taking their jobs and to motion nondisclosure agreements astir this ‘indignity’ arsenic a information of receiving immoderate signifier of severance,” the proclamation said.

Implementation and exceptions

The Secretary of Homeland Security volition restrict petitions not accompanied by the $100,000 outgo for H-1B specialty concern workers presently extracurricular the US for 12 months aft September 21, 2025. The Secretary of State volition besides contented guidance to forestall misuse of B visas for beneficiaries of approved H-1B petitions with commencement dates anterior to October 1, 2026. The proclamation clarifies that restrictions bash not use if hiring H-1B workers “is successful the nationalist involvement and does not airs a menace to the information oregon payment of the United States.”