A day after President Donald Trump voiced support for H-1B visa holders, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem reaffirmed that the United States will continue to rely on its visa programs. Speaking on Wednesday, Noem emphasized that the administration’s policies are strengthening pathways to citizenship, noting a steady rise in naturalizations among foreign-born residents during Trump’s tenure.
“We’re going to keep using our visa programs. We’re just going to make sure that they have integrity, that we’re actually doing the vetting of the individuals who come into this country, that they want to be here for the right reasons, that they’re not supporters of terrorists and organizations that hate America,” Noem stated in an interview with Fox News.
When asked to clarify the administration’s stance following President Trump’s recent comments that the U.S. needs to “bring in talent” because it lacks “certain skills.”
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“And that’s what I think is so remarkable… under the Trump administration, we’ve sped up our process and added integrity to the visa programs, to Green Cards, to all of that. But also, more people are becoming naturalized under this administration than ever before. More people are becoming citizens because we’re not just streamlining and building some processes back into our immigration policies, we’re also making sure that these individuals that are coming into our country and get that privilege, that they actually are here for the right reasons,” she said.
Noem also took aim at the previous administration, claiming that President Joe Biden’s policies had compromised national security. She alleged that the Biden administration had “let thousands of terrorists” into this country, contrasting that with Trump’s stricter immigration stance.
“They opened the Southern border. They abused our asylum programmes, abused our protective programmes and visa programmes, and we fixed all of it.”
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“It’s remarkable what President Trump has done, and it’s because he’s a great leader, he’s a visionary, and this man is going to go down as a legend in history as our greatest president ever,” she said.
Trump reiterated his backing for the H-1B visa program, arguing that the United States must continue to bring in skilled professionals from abroad to this country. He said America has to bring in talent from around the world to fill critical gaps in its workforce and drive innovation.
“I agree but you also do have to bring in talent,” Trump had said in an interview to Laura Ingraham on Fox News.
Trump was responding to a question about whether H-1B visas would remain a major focus for his administration, and how that aligns with his promise to boost wages for American workers. Addressing concerns about job competition, he said the goal is not to flood the country with hundreds of thousands of foreign workers, but to ensure the U.S. attracts only the most qualified talent needed for key industries.