WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he was on “both sides” of the H-1B argument but what he really wants to do is expand the categories of people coming to the US under the programme to include maitre d’, wine experts and high-quality waiters.
A debate is raging among Republicans, including in the Trump administration, on the H-1B visa programme under which US employers are allowed to hire foreign workers in speciality occupations for three to six to make up for the shortage of locally available talents. Some conservatives argue the programme has been abused to replace American workers with low-wage alternatives from abroad.
“I like both sides of the argument, but I also like very competent people coming into our country, even if that involves them training and helping other people that may not have the qualifications they do,” Trump said at a news briefing on his first full day in office.
“But I don’t want to stop. And I’m not just talking about engineers,” he continued.
“I’m talking about people at all levels. … Maitre D’s, wine, you know, experts, even waiters, high-quality waiters. You got to get the best people now.”
Most H-1Bs come to the US for engineering positions and turning to Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle; Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI, and Masayoshi Son, the Japanese billionaire, who were there for the launch of an AI in health, Trump said, “Then you go to people like Larry, and he needs engineers, and Masa needs and this gentleman Altman needs engineers like nobody’s ever needed.”
“By doing that,” Trump said about bringing people to the US on H-1B, “we’re expanding businesses, and that takes care of everybody. So I’m sort of on both sides of the argument, but what I really do feel is that we have to let really competent people, great people come into our country.”
The US issues 85,000 visas under the H-1B non-immigrant short-term work visa — from abroad and among the foreign students enrolled in US colleges and universities. And most of these visas have gone to Indians. — IANS
