Trump’s commerce secretary Lutnick says green card to change, DeSantis calls H-1B visas a scam

“I am involved in changing the H-1B visa programme.

We are going to change that programme because that’s terrible, right? We are going to change the green card,” Lutnick said during an interview with Fox News.

Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis also criticised the H-1B visa programme, calling it a “total scam”. He said it allows companies to replace American workers with foreign labour.

During an interview on Fox News, DeSantis claimed that companies often train American workers alongside H-1B visa holders, only to lay off the Americans and hire the foreign workers. This practice, he said, is unacceptable and hurts American workers.

The current H1B visa system is a scam that lets foreign workers fill American job opportunities.

Hiring American workers should be the priority of all great American businesses. Now is the time to hire American. pic.twitter.com/l27HEhF7C3

— Howard Lutnick (@howardlutnick) August 26, 2025

Asked by anchor Laura Ingraham on the divide in the Trump cabinet over the issue of H-1B visas, DeSantis said, “I think you are right to say the H-1B… has become a total scam. These companies game the system. Some of these companies are laying off large numbers of Americans while also hiring new H-1B workers and renewing existing H-1B visas. Often, people used to say, ‘We are getting the cream of the crop from all around the world.’ The reality is that’s not actually what H1Bs are.”

He contested the notion that the H-1B programme attracts the “best and brightest” talent, suggesting instead that it has become a system that benefits a specific industry, largely dominated by workers from one country.

“Most of them (H-1Bs) are from one country, India, there’s a cottage industry about how all those people make money off this system.”

With artificial intelligence increasingly displacing young workers, DeSantis questioned why the US should import more foreign labour instead of prioritising its own citizens.

“Why would we be importing foreign workers when we have our own people that we need to take care of?,” he said.

Lutnick claimed there is strong interest in the programme, with 250,000 people supposedly waiting in line, and potentially generating USD 1.25 trillion in revenue.

In January, backing the H-1B visa programme, US President Donald Trump had said the country needs “very competent” and “great” people, and this is possible through this visa programme.

Speaking at the White House during a joint news conference with Oracle CTO Larry Ellison, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Trump said: “I like both sides of the argument, but I also like very competent people coming into our country, even if that involves them training and helping other people who may not have the qualifications they do. But I don’t want to stop – and I am not just talking about engineers, I am talking about people at all levels.”

“We want competent people coming into our country. And H-1B, I know the programme very well. I use the programme. Maitre d’, wine experts, even waiters, high-quality waiters – you have got to get the best people. People like Larry, he needs engineers, Masa also needs… they need engineers like nobody’s ever needed them,” he said.

“So, we have to have quality people coming in. Now, by doing that, we are expanding businesses and that takes care of everybody. So I am sort of on both sides of the argument, but what I really do feel is that we have to let really competent people, great people, come into our country. And we do that through the H-1B programme,” he said.

It was the second time since his election that Trump had supported the H-1B programme that allows businesses in the US to employ skilled foreign nationals.

While much of the focus of the crackdown is against illegal immigration, there is some apprehension here that the far-right MAGA Republican voices may force a tightening of the legal immigration channels as well.

Since Indian professionals and students go to the US in large numbers to live, work or study there, along with Indian tourists, there has been some concern about how those visa categories may be affected.

Indians are the biggest beneficiaries of the H-1B visas. Between October 2022 and September 2023, 72 per cent of the nearly 4 lakh visas issued under the H-1B programme went to Indian nationals. During the same period, top four Indian IT majors with a presence in the US – Infosys, TCS, HCL and Wipro – obtained approval for around 20,000 employees to work on H-1B visas, according to the latest US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data.