President Donald Trump’s admission to Fox News host Laura Ingraham that the United States workforce lacks “certain talents and people,” and should therefore expand the H-1B visa program, has stirred a debate among conservatives.
In an exchange that aired Tuesday evening, Ingraham suggested that bringing in more foreign workers would have negative consequences for American workers.
“Well, I agree, but you also do have to bring in talent,” Trump said.
“Well, we have plenty of talented people here,” Ingraham replied.
“No, you don’t,” Trump said. “No, you don’t have certain talents and people have to learn.”
I PRESSED President Trump on H-1B visas.
“If you want to RAISE WAGES for Americans, you can’t flood the country with THOUSANDS of foreign workers.”@POTUS: “You have to bring in talent… You can’t take people off the unemployment line and say, ‘go make missiles.’”
The… pic.twitter.com/lB4wWuRKGK
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) November 12, 2025
What is the H-1B visa?
The H-1B visa program was created in 1990 as a way for U.S. companies to hire up to 85,000 foreign workers for special occupations per year. At last count, as many as 700,000 foreigners were approved to work in the U.S. in 2025.
The H-1B visa allows foreign workers with a bachelor’s degree or equivalent to work in the country for three years and can be extended for an additional three years.
Historically, the visas have largely gone to workers in information technology and computer sciences, systems analysts, engineers, university professors, and healthcare workers. Corporations, including Amazon, Google, Meta, Apple, and IBM, ranked in the top 10 of employers who hired the most H-1B visa recipients.
H-1B visa recipients must be paid at least $60,000, which is below the 2023 median U.S. household income of $80,600, according to Census Bureau data.
USCIS makes 20,000 of these visas available to recent U.S. master’s degree or doctorate graduates and an additional 65,000 to workers overseas seeking admission.
The H-1B and the H-1A visa, issued for hiring nurses, were born in 1990 out of the Immigration Act.
Trump’s record on the H-1B visa
Several months into the pandemic in 2020, Trump signed an executive order that denied admission to H-1B visa holders outside of the food supply network.
Trump decried this particular visa in 2016 as “substituting” Americans with “cheap labor.” He later changed his tune and said that he supported the program, claiming that he had many of these types of workers on his properties.
Billionaire businessman and the Department of Government Efficiency’s former chairman, Elon Musk, was an H-1B visa recipient and is believed to have impacted Trump’s view on the visa.
In October, Trump signed a proclamation that raised the H-1B visa fee for companies to $100,000 per worker. The Trump administration has since been sued by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Is there a worker shortage or not?
Prior to Trump’s latest admission, conservatives were already divided on the H-1B visa. The fallout over the program has grown overnight across social media platforms, where the debate was in full swing Wednesday.
Steve Cortes, founder of the League of American Workers, said American workers were already being negatively affected by the growth of artificial intelligence and that bringing in more foreign workers would further risk jobs for citizens.
“Entry-level and junior white collar workers are seeing massive pain from AI, already,” Cortes wrote in a post. “This environment is NO time to allow millions of foreign laborers into America. We must phase out H1B and other abused worker visa programs!”
Entry-level and junior white collar workers are seeing massive pain from AI, already.
This environment is NO time to allow millions of foreign laborers into America.
We must phase out H1B and other abused worker visa programs! pic.twitter.com/8l9FqvUKXQ
— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) October 28, 2025
Indiana state Rep. Andrew Ireland shared an example of an H-1B visa job that was unnecessary and an example of how the program was due for shutting down.
“Indiana’s own state government hired a foreign worker on an H-1B visa for a ‘Database Administrator’ job this year. If we’re serious about being America First, we cannot use tax dollars to import foreign workers,” Ireland, a Republican, wrote on X Wednesday.
— Andrew Ireland (@AndrewIrelandIN) November 12, 2025
The conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, normally in lock-step with Trump, took a swipe at the program and said it was displacing Americans who needed jobs.
“Congress created the H-1B visa to bring a limited number of skilled, specialty workers to fill a need in the U.S. economy. Today, it serves to displace thousands of qualified American workers,” Heritage wrote in a post to X on Monday.
The Department of Labor made a case in late October that the H-1B visa be overhauled — not entirely in line with the White House’s strong support for the program on Tuesday.
“Young Americans have had the American Dream stolen from them, as jobs have been replaced by foreign workers due to rampant abuse of the H-1B visa. Under @POTUS and @SecretaryLCD’s leadership, we’re holding companies accountable for their abuse—and recapturing the American Dream for the AMERICAN PEOPLE,” the Department of Labor said in a statement.
Daniel Di Martino is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a PhD candidate in economics at Columbia University in New York who studies the impact of immigration policy on the economy and said doing away with it would be “suicidal.”
“President Trump is right about H-1B visas. America benefits from talented immigrants,” Di Martino responded on X. “The visa isn’t perfect but ending it is suicidal. It brings billions in foreign investment, retains talented foreign students, boosts innovation, and brings foreign doctors who save lives.”
EVERYTHING TO KNOW ABOUT THE H-1B VISA DEBATE SURROUNDING TRUMPWORLD
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday that Trump’s plan was foolproof.
“Americans can’t have jobs with specific skill, because we haven’t built ships in the U.S. for years. We haven’t built semiconductors,” Bessent told Fox News’s Fox & Friends on Wednesday. “This idea of overseas partners coming in again, teaching American workers, then return home. That’s a home run.”