Trump signs proclamation imposing $1,00,000 fee for H-1B visa applications

“We need workers. We need workers. We need great workers, and this pretty much ensures that that’s what’s going to happen,” Mr. Trump said, as he signed the proclamation in the Oval Office in the presence of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Mr. Lutnick said that historically, the employment-based Green Card programme let in 2,81,000 people a year, and those people earned $66,000 a year on average and were five times more likely to participate in assistance programmes of the government.

“So we were taking in the bottom quartile, below the average American. It was illogical; it was the only country in the world that was taking in the bottom quartile,” Mr. Lutnick said.

“We are going to stop doing that. We’re going to only take extraordinary people at the very top, instead of those trying to take jobs from Americans. They’re going to create businesses and create jobs for Americans. And this programme will raise more than $100 billion for the treasury of the United States,” he added.

Mr. Trump said that the country will use that amount to cut taxes and pay down debt. “We think it’s going to be very successful,” he said.