Washington — The White House on Friday strongly defended the Trump administration’s sweeping changes to the H-1B visa programme, describing the newly imposed $100,000 fee on supplemental H-1B applications as a “significant first step to stop abuses” and ensure that American workers are protected.
In an exclusive statement to IANS, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said President Donald Trump has “done more than any president in modern history to tighten our immigration laws and put American workers first.”
“The $100,000 payment required to supplement new H1-B visa applications is a significant first step to stop abuses of the system and ensure American workers are no longer replaced by lower-paid foreign labor,” Rogers said.
‘Project Firewall’ Launched to Target Violators
Rogers also highlighted the administration’s new enforcement drive, Project Firewall, launched by the Department of Labor to identify and penalize companies misusing the H-1B programme.
“The Department of Labor launched Project Firewall as a new enforcement initiative to investigate companies that have abused the H1-B system,” she said. “The Trump administration is protecting American workers by restoring accountability… ensuring that H-1Bs are used to bring in only the highest-skilled foreign workers in specialty occupations.”
The White House’s comments come days after President Trump publicly defended the H-1B programme during a Fox News interview — despite his administration imposing some of the harshest restrictions in the visa’s history.
Trump: “You Do Have to Bring in Talent”
Asked by Fox News’ Laura Ingraham whether he planned to deprioritise the H-1B visas, Trump insisted: “You do have to bring in talent.”
When Ingraham countered that the US has “plenty of talent,” Trump responded bluntly:
“No you don’t… You don’t have certain talents.”
“You can’t take people off an unemployment line and say… we’re going to make missiles.”
His remarks rekindled a fierce debate within his own party over the future of the visa programme.
Republican Backlash: Calls to Scrap H-1B
On Friday, Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene doubled down on her demand to ban H-1B visas entirely, except in the medical sector. In a post on X, she argued that eliminating the programme would help American workers and even the housing market.
“Ending H1B visas means more jobs available for Americans and more homes available for Americans,” she wrote. “When Americans have good paying jobs they will be able to buy homes as long as they don’t have to compete with legally imported labor.”
Greene said she plans to introduce legislation to “ban H-1B visas in all sectors.”
Experts Warn Ban Would “Hurt Americans”
Immigration experts, however, sharply criticised Greene’s proposal. Speaking to IANS, Sarah Pierce, Director of Social Policy at the Washington-based think tank Third Way, said restricting or banning H-1Bs would have dire consequences.
“Slashing the flow of foreign workers, including the medical professionals her own communities rely on, would gut access to care overnight,” Pierce warned.
“It is one of the most efficient ways to hurt Americans” and would lead to more “preventable deaths.”
A Programme at the Center of a National Argument
The H-1B visa — crucial for sectors such as tech, research, healthcare, engineering, and higher education — has become the flashpoint in a broader political fight over immigration, wages, economic growth, and America’s global competitiveness.
As the White House emphasizes enforcement and high barriers to entry, and Republican hardliners push for outright elimination, industry leaders and lawmakers remain deeply divided on the future of the programme.
For now, the administration stands firm: the $100,000 fee, coupled with stepped-up investigations, is just the beginning of a larger regulatory overhaul.
