EXCLUSIVE: Trump Administration Divided Over How to Best Constrain H-1B Program

The Trump administration is divided between factions about the best way to reform the controversial H-1B visa program, sources familiar with the matter told The Daily Signal.

One faction wants to restrict the program so much that foreigners won’t be able to use it, while others think it’s useful to bring in exceptional talent, a senior administration official said.

While President Donald Trump maintains abuses of the system need to be reformed, he told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham he believes the program—which allows highly skilled workers in “specialty occupations” to live and work in the U.S.—is needed to bring certain talent in. This comment sparked outrage from many of his supporters.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said she’s “solidly against” Americans “being replaced by foreign labor, like with H-1Bs.”

“End H-1B so it’s not used for cheap labor & expand genius visas for genuine high end talent,” conservative influencer Robby Starbuck wrote.

Former Department of Government Efficiency adviser and Florida governor hopeful James Fishback said he would “fire every single H-1B working at our state agencies.”

But the conversation is more far reaching than a MAGA social media dispute. The future of H-1B visas is a highly contested issue within the administration, a senior official told The Daily Signal.

Business and tech titans like Tesla’s Elon Musk and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella support visas. Even Melania Trump entered the United States using an H-1B.

Trump imposed a new $100,000 fee for the visas, a move that opponents said could make skilled foreigners too costly to hire. While the move was largely praised by MAGA, many said it will not make a significant difference because it will only apply to new people entering the U.S.

What unites Trump’s base is the desire to reform the program, though the administration is balancing numerous opinions about how to best crack down on abuses without displacing American workers or driving down their wages.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies, has heard a number of conflicting views within the administration on how to best reform H-1Bs, he told The Daily Signal.

“There are a variety of views within the administration about how to deal with H-1Bs, and I think the Democrats, ironically, could strengthen the hands of the H-1B critics if they take advantage of this wedge,” he said. “We’ve seen that with a Democrat candidate for governor of Ohio [Amy Acton] attacking [Vivek] Ramaswamy for his pro-H-1B comments. She criticized Ramaswamy for expanding H-1Bs because he said Americans are lazy and mediocre.”

“If more Democrats take advantage of this, the administration might get off the dime and make some of these more thorough changes that I recommend, rather than the smaller ones so far,” he continued.

Another senior administration official said since the H-1B program was enacted by Congress, Republicans can’t lower the numbers significantly or enact drastic changes. In the meantime, employees are united to do what they can to improve the program.

The Department of Labor launched Project Firewall to root out potential abuses within the H-1B program. So far, 175 investigations have been opened that represent more than $15 million in calculated back wages to workers.

“In record time, President Trump has done more than any president in modern history to tighten our immigration laws and put American workers first,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told The Daily Signal. “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. Additionally, the Department of Labor launched Project Firewall as a new enforcement initiate 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 specialty occupations and not low wage workers that will displace Americans,” Rogers continued.

While Congress would have to act to make the full range of changes that the H-1B program requires, there is a lot the administration can still do to limit the number of users, Krikorian said.

He wants Trump to end the Optional Practical Training Program, or OPT, a feeder for H-1Bs.

OPT is a temporary employment authorization program that allows F-1 student visa holders in America to work in a job directly related to their field of study. While the program started in the 1960s to allow for limited “practical training” in the United States, it has evolved into one of the country’s largest guest worker programs.

Krikorian also would like to see Trump use the bully pulpit to pressure Congress to end the program, as Greene demanded.

“The administration could call for ending H-1Bs, nothing stopping them from doing that, except the fact that the president likes H-1B,” he said.

A third senior administration official said that they think people are on the same page about H-1Bs at this time, but staffers are always considering all options to present to the president. The official said the president likes to weigh numerous options on all topics.

Even Vice President JD Vance’s stance on the visas has appeared to diverge from the president’s. Last week, he argued that the United States should avoid relying on additional foreign workers and instead focus on using technology to “empower the blue-collar workers” already in the country.

The Democrats’ “idea was the way that we get more prosperity is that you import more and more low-wage servants and that actually I think reduced prosperity, because it meant that a lot of our blue-collar workers were struggling,” he said.

But the rift in the Trump administration over H-1Bs isn’t a divide between Trump and Vance, Krikorian said.

“This isn’t a Trump versus Vance thing at all,” he said. “This is a Trump versus the next generation kind of thing.”

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