In an interview with Fox journalist Laura Ingraham, President Donald Trump was forced to defend his support for HB1 visas, which are meant to bring skilled foreign nationals to the United States to work. Trump’s radical anti-immigrant policy has led to the emigration—and/or the expulsion—of many such foreign workers and academics, and is a major obstacle to convincing foreign firms to invest in America.
If we lack the needed skilled labor and these companies are impeded from bringing skilled labor from their countries, such investment will never be implemented, Trump argued. Ingraham implied that this was demeaning to U.S. workers, whom she felt should be employed in such investment projects, which would help raise the wage level of the American worker. “You also do have to bring in talent,” Trump countered.
When Ingraham said the U.S. already had “plenty of talented people here,” Trump replied: “No, you don’t have certain talents. And you have to, 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.”
