Washington, Nov 25 (NationPress) The White House has come to the defense of US President Donald Trump’s perspective on H-1B visas, asserting that he holds a “nuanced and common-sense viewpoint on this matter.”

During a press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that Trump would permit the initial importation of foreign workers but ultimately aims for them to be succeeded by American employees.

“He seeks to observe if foreign companies are investing trillions of dollars in the United States and are bringing foreign labor along to create very specialized products like batteries. Initially, he wants to enable that to get manufacturing facilities and factories operational, but the President’s ultimate goal is to have American workers fill those roles,”

she elaborated.

Leavitt remarked that there has been considerable misunderstanding regarding the President's stance on this matter, and Trump has communicated to foreign enterprises that if they’re investing in the US, they “better be hiring my people.”

This clarification from the White House follows Trump’s strong endorsement of legal immigration, where he expressed willingness to welcome “thousands of individuals” from abroad to assist in training American workers in technology sectors.

“You can’t just arrive, establish a massive computer chip factory worth billions and billions of dollars as is happening in Arizona, and expect to hire people directly from the unemployment line to operate it. They will need to bring thousands of workers with them. I am going to welcome those individuals,”

Trump stated during his speech at the US-Saudi Investment Forum in Washington.

He emphasized that the foreign workforce would “educate our people” in manufacturing “computer chips and other products.”

“You come here and discover that we lack individuals with that experience. We are allowing you… if you need to bring people to open those facilities, we encourage you to do so. We want those individuals to teach our workforce how to produce computer chips and other items,”

he noted.

Trump admitted that he might “face some backlash” from his conservative supporters regarding his position on foreign labor.

The President's recent statements have ignited a fierce debate, with prominent Republican leaders calling for the elimination of the visa program.

The White House had previously reiterated its stance on the visa policy, informing IANS that the $100,000 fee for new H-1B visa applications is a “significant first step to prevent abuses of the system.”

In an exclusive statement to IANS, a White House representative asserted that President Donald Trump has “done more than any president in modern history to tighten our immigration laws and prioritize American workers.”

“The $100,000 payment required for new H-1B visa applications is a significant initial measure to halt system abuses and ensure that American labor is not replaced by lower-paid foreign workers,”

White House Spokeswoman Taylor Rogers explained to IANS.

The administration's H-1B visa policy has encountered widespread opposition from lawmakers and is currently facing legal challenges, including two significant lawsuits filed in courts, one of which is by the US Chamber of Commerce, the nation's largest business organization.

Workers from India received over 70 percent of the total approved H-1B visas in 2024, mainly due to a substantial backlog in approvals and a large number of skilled immigrants from India.