As immigrant communities across America reeled with concern over a slew of Donald Trump’s executive orders directed at them, the President had a somewhat reassuring word for skilled Indian and other foreign workers on H-1B work visas.
“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 that may not have the qualifications they do,” he told reporters at the White House Tuesday.
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“We want competent people coming into our country. And H-1B, I know the program very well. I use the program. Wine experts, even waiters, high-quality waiters — you’ve got to get the best people,” he said at the joint press conference with Oracle CTO Larry Ellison, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, and Open AI CEO Sam Altman.
“We have to have quality people coming in. Now by doing that, we’re expanding businesses and that takes care of everybody. So I’m 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 program,” he added
Trump also noted that H-1B visas are temporary visas for highly skilled foreign nationals in the U.S. Indian citizens accounted for almost three-fourths of the 386,000 H-1B visas granted in 2023, according to official data.
Trump weighed in on the H-1B debate siding with some of his close associates, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who have voiced support for the H-1B visa program. However, several of his MAGA supporters have also opposed the visa, saying that Americans were losing jobs because of it.
Just hours after his inauguration Monday, Trump signed several immigranation related orders, including declaration of a national emergency at the U.S.’ southern border with Mexico ending birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants.
“I’m fine with legal immigration. I like it. We need people, and I’m absolutely fine with it. We want to have it. But we have to have legal immigration,” he said after signing the order in the Oval Office.
Meanwhile, during a meeting with the new Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Tuesday, Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar highlighted immigration as a key focus of their discussions. Both leaders acknowledged the vital contributions of skilled Indian professionals to the U.S. economy and expressed a mutual commitment to advancing policies that enhance their mobility.
Rubio and Jaishankar affirmed a shared commitment to continuing to strengthen the partnership between the United States and India, according to an official State Department statement.
“They discussed a wide range of topics, including regional issues and opportunities to further deepen the U.S.-India relationship, in particular on critical and emerging technologies, defense cooperation, energy, and on advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific region.”
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“Rubio also emphasized the Trump Administration’s desire to work with India to advance economic ties and address concerns related to irregular migration,” the statement added.
After the meeting, Jaishankar who came to Washington for Trump’s inauguration, posted on X, “Delighted to meet @secrubio for his first bilateral meeting after assumption of office as Secretary of State. Reviewed our extensive bilateral partnership, of which @secrubio has been a strong advocate. Also exchanged views on a wide range of regional and global issues, including migration frameworks. Look forward to closely working with him to advance our strategic cooperation.”
Meanwhile, according to a Bloomberg report, Indian government is prepared to work with the Trump administration to identify and take back all its citizens residing illegally in the U.S., “an early signal from New Delhi that it’s willing to comply with the incoming American president and avoid a trade war.”
The two countries have together identified some 18,000 illegal Indian migrants in the U.S. to be sent back home, it said citing “people familiar with the matter.” The figure could be much higher than that, though, given it’s unclear how many illegal Indian migrants live in the US.
Like several other nations, India is working behind the scenes to appease the Trump administration and avoid the brunt of its trade threats, Bloomberg said.In return for its cooperation, India hopes that the Trump administration would protect legal immigration channels used by its citizens to enter the U.S., in particular the student visas and the H-1B program for skilled workers.
“As part of India-U.S. cooperation on migration and mobility, both sides are engaged in a process to deter illegal migration. This is being done to create more avenues for legal migration from India to the US,” said Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for India’s ministry of external affairs. “The latest deportation of Indian nationals from the U.S. by a chartered flight is a result of this cooperation,” he added, referring to an October repatriation action.
India is a relatively modest contributor of illegal migrants to the US, with its citizens accounting for about 3% of all unlawful crossings encountered by U.S. border patrol officials in fiscal 2024, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data cited by Bloomberg.
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However, the tally and share of Indian illegal migrants has been rising modestly in recent years. In particular, it has shot up at the less-trafficked northern US border, where Indians account for almost a quarter of all illegal crossings and also the biggest share of unlawful migrants stopped at that entry point, the data show.
While the total number of illegal Indian migrants in the U.S. isn’t certain, a report published last year by the Department of Homeland Security estimated some 220,000 unauthorized Indian immigrants resided in the U.S. as of 2022.