A day after US President Donald Trump defended the H-1B visa programme, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent elaborated on the administration’s approach, saying the “vision” is to bring in skilled foreign workers who can train Americans and eventually return to their home countries.
“The President's vision here is to bring in overseas workers, where these jobs went, who have the skills. Three, five, seven years to train the US workers, then they can go home. The US workers fully take over,” Bessent said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday.
Responding to Trump’s recent comments on H-1B visas—where the President said America must bring in talent since it lacks “certain talents”—Bessent explained that the US has, for decades, offshored precision manufacturing roles.
“For 20-30 years, the US has offshored precision manufacturing jobs. And the President's point here is, again, we can't snap our fingers and say, ‘You're going to learn how to build ships overnight’. We want to bring the semiconductor industry back to the US,” he said.
“So this idea of overseas partners coming in, teaching American workers, then returning home, that's a home run,” he added, noting that Americans currently “haven’t built ships in the US for years, we haven’t built semiconductors.”
Trump, in his own remarks, had defended the visa programme, saying, “I agree, but you also do have to bring in talent.”
During an interview with Laura Ingraham on Fox News, Trump was asked whether the H-1B visa issue would remain a priority for his administration, given concerns that hiring foreign workers might suppress American wages.
When Ingraham suggested that “we have plenty of talent,” Trump disagreed. “No, you don’t, 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 said.
Referring to a recent incident, Trump added, “In Georgia, they raided because they wanted illegal immigrants. They had people from South Korea that made batteries all their lives. You know, making batteries (is) very complicated. It's not an easy thing, and very dangerous. A lot of explosions, lot of problems. They had, like 500-600 people, early stages to make batteries and to teach people how to do it. Well, they wanted them to get out of the country. You're going to need that…I mean, I know you and I disagree on this. You can't just say a country is coming in, going to invest USD 10 billion to build a plant and going to take people off an unemployment line who haven't worked in five years, and they're going to start making missiles. It doesn't work that way.”
The Trump administration has intensified efforts to reform the H-1B visa system, which allows US companies—especially in the technology and medical sectors—to employ skilled foreign professionals, including a large number of Indian workers.
In September, Trump issued a proclamation titled ‘Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers’, marking what officials described as a key first step in overhauling the programme. Under this order, H-1B petitions filed after September 21, 2025, must include an additional USD 100,000 payment as a condition of eligibility.
Last week, the administration launched around 175 investigations into H-1B visa abuse, probing violations such as underpayment, nonexistent work sites, and “benching” of employees.
“As part of our mission to protect American Jobs, we’ve launched 175 investigations into H-1B abuse,” the US Department of Labour said in a post on X, adding that under the leadership of President Trump and Labour Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the agency would continue prioritising American workers.
Chavez-DeRemer reaffirmed that stance on X, writing, “The Labour Department is using every resource at our disposal to put a stop to H-1B abuse and protect American Jobs. Under the leadership of @POTUS, we’ll continue to invest in our workforce and ensure high-skilled job opportunities go to American Workers FIRST!”
