FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said the law doesn’t allow the Trump administration to eliminate H-1B visas.
When asked by The Daily Signal if eliminating the program—a proposal popular with the MAGA base—is a possibility, Chavez-DeRemer said “I don’t think that that’s really what’s in the law.”
“The law is, H-1B visa programs were created for a reason: immediacy,” she said. “Oftentimes when you cannot find an American worker to do the job and companies need access to immediacy in the workforce, that’s what those programs are. For H-1B visa programs, you want to advertise to the American worker first. You want to make sure that you cannot find an American worker first, and then you can apply for an H-1B visa program.”
An H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations.
The Daily Signal previously reported that the Trump administration is divided about the best way to reform the controversial H-1B visa program. One faction wants to restrict the program so much that foreigners won’t be able to use it, while others think it’s useful to bring in exceptional talent, a senior administration official said.
But DeRemer said there is space in the law for this program with the goal of having a trained workforce.
“If these companies are going use the program, we want to make sure that they’re also training American workers so that we can offer it to them first,” she said. “And that if they’re going to use the program, that they’re not abusing that.”
The Labor Department has launched Project Firewall to root out abuses to the H-1B visa program. DeRemer said 200 investigations have been launched, and she has certified one of them.
“We want to make sure they’re complying with the law if they want to use the visa program and they want to stay in the program, then they have to follow the law,” she said. “I’ve had to personally certify a lot of these investigations. That’s never been done before. I’ve done one so far, but that’s a tool that we have in our toolbox, and it has not been used before.”
Everything DeRemer does at the Labor Department is to protect the American workforce, she said.
“We want to make sure that we’re not depressing American wages,” she said. “We’re working very hard to protect American jobs and that there is room for an H -1B visa program, but we want our companies to comply with the law.”
Trump imposed a new $100,000 fee for the visas, a move that opponents said could make skilled foreigners too costly to hire. While the move was largely praised by MAGA, many said it will not make a significant difference because it will only apply to new people entering the U.S.
DeRemer said companies who “really need to use the H-1B visa program” will want to “pay for that fee in order to initiate the program.”
“Possibly, maybe someday we won’t need that program, but currently some companies are still needing it,” she said. “They’re willing to pay the fee to have access for those immediate workforce, and then the Department of Labor wants to make sure that we’re responding to the market demands and training the American worker.”
Companies new to the program will pay the fees, anyone who has used the program before can apply for extensions, but they will have to prove they are advertising first to the American worker, she said.
“Once they have an American worker trained, they can go back and hire that American worker first,” she said. “The president has been clear that we want to make sure that we’re protecting the American worker. That’s why you see his banner hanging off of my building here at the Department of Labor, because the president, every decision that he has made and that he promised to make and that the Department of Labor is doing is through the lens of the American worker.”
Chavez-DeRemer, a former Oregon congresswoman, was one of the only Trump cabinet members to receive support from Democrats due to her close relationship with labor unions.
When asked by The Daily Signal if she thought the Republican party was moving more in the pro-labor direction, she said she sees “pro-labor moving toward the Republican party because of the values.”
“One of the things that the president talked about a lot on his campaign, in the first Trump administration and certainly in the second, was understanding that he’s the president of the American worker, protecting American workers first,” she said. “Again, every decision that he makes and every decision I make goes through that lens.”
When Trump appointed DeRemer for the role, she told him she could bring management and labor together.
“That was one of the things that I talked to the president about when I was being appointed for this job,” she said, “was I told him I could fill every single table, every single time, and bring business and management together so that we can answer the call of people who want to build in this country with their hands.”
“They want to work, they want to have mortgage-paying jobs, and at the end of the day, they want to go home safe, and they want to provide for their families,” she continued. “That’s what I’m doing. That’s what the president is doing. And so, I would say that this coalition is coming together, and you’re going to see more labor unions side with the Republican party because they’re the voice of the American worker.”
