By The White House | Created at 2026-09-18 22:30:16 | Updated at 2026-09-26 03:03:46
1 week ago
PROTECTING AMERICAN JOBS: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order and a Proclamation to continue to protect American national and economic security and American workers from abuses of the H-1B visa program.
- The Order enhances program integrity in the H-1B visa program by improving interagency coordination and directing enhanced scrutiny of H-1B visa applications where there is a heightened risk that American workers would be laid off.
- The Order directs the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary of Homeland Security to consult with the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Education, and the Administrator of the Small Business Administration in order to receive additional data for the administration of the H-1B program, such as data on wages, industrial conditions, and employment specialization.
- The Order directs the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary of Homeland Security to consider petitioner employers’ recent or planned layoffs of similarly situated U.S. workers when considering H-1B visa applications.
- The Proclamation renews the $100,000 fee requirement for certain alien H-1B visa applications first imposed on September 19, 2025 to curb abuses that displace U.S. workers and undermine national security.
COMBATTING H-1B ABUSES: President Trump’s 2025 Proclamation effectively deterred abuses in the H-1B visa program, and further action will ensure American workers are not replaced with lower-paid foreign labor.
- Since the 2025 Proclamation took effect, H-1B registrations filed by the largest IT outsourcing firms have been reduced by 92%.
- Before the 2025 Proclamation, unemployment among recent computer science graduates reached 6.1% and 7.5% for computer engineering graduates – more than double the rates for biology or art history majors.
- The number of foreign STEM workers in the United States had more than doubled between 2000 and 2019, while overall STEM employment only increased 44.5% during that time. The share of IT workers with H-1B visas had risen from 32% in FY 2003 to over 65% in recent years before the 2025 Proclamation.
- The Proclamation has also caused a nearly 97% decrease in consular processing requests and a shift from lower-paid foreign labor toward higher-skilled and higher-wage workers.
- More work must be done to improve interagency coordination in the assessment of H-1B visa petitions.
- Abuse of the H-1B visa program decreases wages for skilled American workers because the availability of cheaper foreign labor places downward pressure on domestic pay.
- Many employers have laid off large numbers of highly qualified, highly skilled American workers, only to promptly hire large numbers of H-1B workers who are often lower-skilled and lower-paid.
- Due to the outsourcing business model of certain H-1B sponsors, many jobs held by H-1B workers eventually leave the United States entirely.
PUTTING AMERICAN WORKERS FIRST AND RESTORING THE IMMIGRATION SYSTEM: After years and years of failed policies that put foreigners above America’s own workers, President Trump has delivered on his promise to put American workers first and fix the immigration system.
- Since returning to office, President Trump’s economic policies have added over one million jobs to the U.S economy, including nearly 100,000 factory construction jobs and 58,000 manufacturing jobs since January 2026.
- President Trump ignited a manufacturing renaissance, with the U.S. manufacturing sector expanding for eight straight months after perpetual contraction in the Biden Administration.
- In July 2025, President Trump signed the largest tax cuts for working Americans in history which delivered No Tax on Overtime and No Tax on Tips, safeguarded millions of American jobs and over half a trillion dollars in wages, and established the first-ever Workforce Pell Grants for Americans in skilled trades.
- Under President Trump, real wages increased by $822 in 2025 and real household income reached its highest level in history after falling by thousands of dollars under the Biden Administration.
- The Trump Administration is cracking down on visa worker abuse and protecting American workers from being replaced with cheap foreign labor, including H-1B visa fraud investigations and investigations into other practices that illegally favor visa holders over Americans.
- In December 2025, the Department of Homeland Security finalized a rule replacing the H-1B randomized lottery with a weighted system based on wage level to protect American workers’ wages, working conditions, and job opportunities. Fiscal year 2027 is the first time that the H-1B lottery has been decided by wage, not chance, and registrations dropped by almost 40%.
- The Trump Administration strengthened visa programs and their screenings and paused visa processing for 75 high-risk countries to protect the homeland and deter overstays.
- Immediately upon taking office, President Trump secured the border and ended the Biden Administration’s record-shattering illegal immigration into the U.S. The Trump Administration has deported over 3 million illegal aliens and for 15 straight months, no illegal aliens have been released into the country.
