President Trump made a new pitch Wednesday to bring more foreign workers to the U.S. to prepare the nation’s semiconductor chip industry for the challenges of artificial intelligence.
The president insisted that the workers are needed only to help train Americans to do the jobs, but he acknowledged that his fondness for foreign assistance is earning him a “little heat” from some in the MAGA movement who want fewer foreign guest workers.
“If you have to bring people to get those plants opened, we want you to do that, and we want those people to teach our people how to make computer chips and how to make other things,” Mr. Trump said at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum in Washington.
He added: “I love my conservative friends, I love MAGA, but this is MAGA.”
The president’s views on highly skilled foreign workers have long been tricky for him and his administration. He has regularly emphasized the need for such workers, particularly those coming to the U.S. on the H-1B visa, even as his administration has worked to tighten the program.
The issue erupted earlier this month in an exchange with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, who said U.S. workers deserve the jobs.
Mr. Trump said American workers wouldn’t be enough.
“You also do have to bring in talent,” he said. “You don’t have certain talents, and people have to learn.”
Most of the discussion involves the H-1B visa, which is a guest worker pass but is often used as a springboard to a path to citizenship.
Other programs, such as Optional Practical Training, which allows foreign students to remain and work in the U.S. while their student visas are still valid, are also coming under scrutiny.
Mr. Trump signed an executive proclamation in September for a crackdown on H-1B workers. He said the visas had been distorted into a system for displacing Americans “with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor.”
He increased the fee for H-1B approvals to $100,000.
Mr. Trump said the number of foreign science, technology, engineering and math workers in the U.S. doubled from 1.2 million in 2000 to 2.5 million in 2019, or twice the rate of actual job growth in STEM.
“And the key facilitator for this influx of foreign STEM labor has been the abuse of the H-1B visa,” he said.
Soon after his proclamation, the Department of Homeland Security proposed a rewrite of the H-1B rules to give preference to the highest-paying jobs. The department figures that those are the least likely to undercut Americans because companies will be willing to pay more for skills they cannot acquire through training in the U.S.
That’s closer to the view of many MAGA activists and members of Congress.
They point to the example of Disney, which brought in H-1B workers to replace American tech workers and then had the Americans train the foreign replacements.
Rosemary Jenks, policy director at the Immigration Accountability Project, who has been working on this issue for decades, said Mr. Trump has confused her.
She recalled that Mr. Trump had a “visceral reaction” when he learned about the Disney workers during his first presidential campaign.
“I don’t know what happened. Because exactly the same thing is happening today,” she said.
Ms. Jenks also disagreed with Mr. Trump’s read on the skills of American workers.
“I guess nobody has told him that Americans designed chips, Americans produced chips before anyone else. Americans don’t need to be trained in how to produce chips,” she said.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump countered with an example from Georgia, where Hyundai is building a massive electric vehicle battery plant.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided the operation and detained hundreds of South Koreans at the plant. ICE said they were “unlawfully working.” It said the operation was a criminal investigation into the employer, and the unauthorized workers weren’t the focus.
Mr. Trump said Wednesday that he moved to resolve the situation.
“They were told to get out, and I said, ‘Stop it, Don’t be stupid,’” Mr. Trump said. “And we worked it out. And now they’re teaching people how to do it.”
He called out Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in the audience, whose company manufactures computer chips and is building plants in the U.S., as an example of how foreign workers will teach Americans.
“I don’t think you can open up a big plant with your friend from Taiwan … with people that don’t even know what a chip looks like,” Mr. Trump said. “The people that are against this are really, really smart. They’re unbelievable patriots, but they just don’t understand our people have to be taught, this is something they’ve never done.”
Mr. Trump’s business empire has used guest workers through the H-2A and H-2B programs. Those are for seasonal agricultural and nonagricultural workers.
Foreign workers are one of several areas where Mr. Trump has irked adherents of his MAGA movement in recent weeks.
His initial resistance to releasing files concerning convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his growing interest in some international entanglements also have led to grumbles.
After meeting with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Tuesday, Mr. Trump signaled interest in a U.S. role in Sudan’s civil war.
The president pledged action on the Sudanese conflict as part of his broader effort to resolve global conflicts. He credited Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with sparking his interest. He said his team began working on the matter “about 30 minutes” after hearing about it.
“I view it differently than I did just a day ago,” Mr. Trump said.
In a follow-up posting on social media, he said he would work with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt “to get these atrocities to end.”
“Thank you for your attention to this matter. God bless the world!” he concluded.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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