President Donald Trump is planning to announce a new $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applications, the latest move designed to curb legal immigration, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
The presidential proclamation, expected to be signed as soon as Friday, will look to overhaul the program for specialized foreign workers to come to the U.S., according to a White House official granted anonymity to discuss the upcoming announcement. Trump is expected to argue the program has long been exploited by employers, resulting in the displacement of U.S. workers.
The president will also direct the Labor secretary to undergo a rulemaking process to adjust the prevailing-wage levels in the program, an action intended to limit the use of visas that ultimately undercut wages that would otherwise be paid to American workers. Bloomberg first reported the plans.
The move is another step in the president’s efforts to prioritize U.S.-born workers, as Trump aides and allies have long argued the H-1B program suppresses wages for Americans and disincentivizes U.S.-born workers from pursuing STEM fields. The Trump administration has said employers use the program to undercut American workers with lower-paid foreign labor, which officials have decried as a national security threat.
The H-1B visa program was a flashpoint in the beginning of Trump’s term, as MAGA allies in favor of tighter restrictions clashed with Elon Musk and other tech entrepreneurs pushing for more specialty foreign worker visas. Technology companies, which rely heavily on H-1B workers, will be hit the hardest with Trump’s new fees.
The fee hike for H-1Bs comes just months after the GOP’s sweeping policy and tax legislation raised fees for asylum applications, work permits and humanitarian protections, part of an effort to curtail the number of undocumented immigrants able to apply for legal pathways. But it was also a way to raise revenue for the administration’s other priorities, including detention expansion, border wall construction and the hiring of 10,000 new ICE agents.
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