Trump U-Turn Continues As He Digs In On H-1B Visas Amidst MAGA Opposition

WASHINGTON, DC -US President Donald Trump on November 19 defended legal immigration, saying he would welcome “thousands of people” from abroad to train American workers in tech-related industries.

After making years of accusation about “outsiders”, he said, “You can’t come in, open up a massive computer chip factory for billions and billions of dollars like it’s being done in Arizona and think you’re going to hire people from often unemployment line to run it. They’re going to have to bring thousands of people with them. I am going to welcome those people,” Trump said during a speech at the US-Saudi Investment Forum here.

He added that the foreign workforce would “teach our people” to make “computer chips and other things.”

“You are coming here, and you find that we don’t have people who did that before. We are allowing you… If you have to bring people to get those plants open, we want you to do that. We want those people to teach our people – how to make computer chips and how to make other things,” he noted.

Trump acknowledged that he may “take a little heat” from his conservative base about his position on bringing in foreign workers.

“I may take little heat. I always take a little heat from my people. The people that love me and the people that I love. They happen to be toward the right…sometimes they are way right…I love my conservative friends. I love MAGA. But this is MAGA, and those people are going to teach our people how to make computer chips,” he asserted.

Earlier, in a move that had stunned his political base, Trump supported the H-1B visa program in an interview on Fox News. 

Trump’s recent comments have sparked an intense debate, with leading Republican and conservative leaders demanding the scrapping of the visa program. (IANS)