National Security Experts Warn that H-1B Visa Program Changes Will Undermine U.S. Competitiveness and Security

CONTACT: Roberto Estrada  
restrada@monumentadvocacy.com

WASHINGTON — The Council on National Security and Immigration (CNSI) today released a statement warning that the Trump Administration’s Changes to the H-1B program will damage America’s ability to attract and retain the skilled workforce essential to both economic growth and national security.

“This policy will keep out many of the world’s most talented scientists, engineers, and innovators at a time when we cannot afford to lose them. H-1B workers fill critical roles in STEM fields, building the technologies and systems that support U.S. competitiveness and national security. Imposing a new $100,000 cost-prohibitive fee for each new applicant will only drive this talent to our competitors, provide a perverse incentive to outsource critically important work to overseas locations, and weaken America’s industrial base and slow innovation. New proposals to tie visa selection to wage levels rather than a fair lottery also threaten to shut out highly skilled early-career professionals and further hurt America’s ability to compete against our adversaries like Russia and China.

“Earlier this year, we called on the Trump Administration to expand and improve the H-1B program, a widely-used pathway to attract high-skilled foreign workers filling essential roles in the workforce. Each year, hundreds of thousands of highly qualified applicants are turned away due to an outdated cap, set more than three decades ago. Instead of raising barriers to accepting these talented and much-needed workers, the U.S. should bring the program into the 21st century by adding more visa numbers, streamlining the processing, and enact overdue reforms. Also, on the conversion to immigrant status for these H-1B and other temporary workers, we should consider ending per-country limits, using market-based methods to set the visa caps for both immigrant and nonimmigrant visas, and allowing work authorization for spouses of these applicants.

“Other visa concepts, such as the Trump Gold and Platinum cards, may provide useful new avenues for investment and talent. To succeed, however, these programs must include strong safeguards to ensure that funds come from transparent and legitimate sources. Properly designed, they can complement skilled-worker visas by attracting capital and expertise, but they should never become substitutes for modernizing H-1B and other critical programs.

“America’s national security requires the ability to harness global talent, lead in STEM fields, and keep investment and innovation here in the United States. Policies like this massive fee hike and the proposal to tie visa selection to wage levels threaten to undermine that goal and put us at a disadvantage against adversaries who are competing aggressively for the same talent.”

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Leaders of CNSI speak and act solely in their individual capacities, and their views should not be attributed to any organization with which they are affiliated or to CNSI or the National Immigration Forum.

About CNSI: The Council on National Security and Immigration is a group of American national security leaders who believe immigration reforms are imperative to bolster and maintain the United States’ global leadership in the 21st century. Find out more here: www.cnsiusa.org