Fueling innovation, or exploitation? Trump supporters feud over future of H-1B visas

Jan 28, 2025

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Most of President Trump’s closest allies appear to be cheering on his major changes to immigration policy – which have been numerous.

These include executive orders suspending America’s refugee resettlement program, ramping up and expediting deportations, halting asylum claims and canceling existing appointments, and more.

But one program has exposed a major rift in MAGA world over the role of foreign workers, especially in tech: H-1B visas.

Trump’s inner circle is feuding over the future of the visas, which let companies hire foreign workers with hard-to-find skills, granting them temporary permission to live and work in the U.S.

There were more than 470,000 applications entered for 85,000 spots in the latest H-1B visa lottery. The battle has been heated and sometimes downright nasty. Elon Musk and similar tech moguls say the visas are vital to fostering innovation. Meanwhile, Steve Bannon and other right-wing influencers argue H-1Bs lets companies replace American workers with cheaper foreign labor.

All of this has led to a lot of questions about the future of the program during the second term of a president who once took steps to restrict H-1B visas -- but now says he has “always liked” them.

That’s got big resonance here in the Puget Sound region, where some of the companies with the most approved H-1B petitions are located.

To discuss the climate around H-1B visas, Soundside was joined by Jerry Lopez, CTO of Noise Figure Research, a Renton-based tech company; Andrew Kreighbaum, immigration reporter at Bloomberg Law; and Tahmina Watson, an immigration lawyer with Watson Immigration Law.

Guests:

Jerry Lopez, CTO of Noise Figure Research, a Renton-based tech company
Andrew Kreighbaum, immigration reporter at Bloomberg Law
Tahmina Watson, immigration lawyer with Watson Immigration Law