WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday defended the visa program that allows highly skilled foreign workers to immigrate to the US, marking his first comments on an issue that has divided his supporters this week.

Trump said in an interview with The New York Post that he’s “a believer in H-1B,” referring to the visas granted to thousands of foreign workers who immigrate to the US to fill specialized jobs. In his first term, Trump restricted access to foreign worker visas, and he has previously criticized the program. But during the 2024 campaign, Trump signaled openness to giving some foreign-born workers legal status if they graduated from a US university.

“I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them,” Trump told The New York Post on Saturday.

“I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program,” he added.

Many of the workers at Trump properties, however, are granted visas through the separate H-2B program, which allows employers to bring foreign workers to the United States for temporary non-agricultural jobs such as landscaping and hospitality.

The Department of Labor posts detailed visa-worker data online going back to 2008. During that time, Trump’s businesses requested and received government approval to hire foreign laborers for more than 2,100 positions. About 70 of those positions were for high-skilled workers through the H-1B program. Most of the requests for H-1B workers were made more than a decade ago by companies such as Trump Model Management and Trump International Hotel and Tower in New York.

The last time a Trump company appears to have hired an H-1B visa worker was in 2022, when Trump Media & Technology Group Corp was approved to hire a data analyst.

Trump’s comments to the New York Post on Saturday mark the first time he’s weighed in on the H-1B issue since entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, whom Trump has tapped to lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, defended the foreign worker visa program, igniting sharp criticism from MAGA loyalists hoping to restrict immigration.

Over several days this week, Musk has passionately defended H-1B visas in social media posts, arguing for their importance in allowing tech companies – including his own – to grow their businesses. In a post Friday, Musk said he will “go to war” to protect access to H-1B visas.

“The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B,” the tech mogul wrote. “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.”

Musk, who was born in South Africa and obtained Canadian citizenship through his mother, came to the US as a foreign student and later worked on an H-1B visa.

Musk and Ramaswamy’s defense of foreign worker visas has been met with strong pushback from the anti-immigration supporters in Trump’s coalition. Former Trump aide Steve Bannon called H-1B visas a “scam” on an episode of his podcast Saturday, joining a vocal contingent of loyal Trump supporters that includes former Rep. Matt Gaetz and far-right provocateur Laura Loomer.

The H-1B visa program allows 65,000 highly skilled workers to immigrate to the US each year to fill specific jobs and grants another 20,000 visas to such workers who have received an advanced degree in the US. Economists have argued the program allows US companies to maintain competitiveness and grow their business, creating more jobs in the US.

Trump has previously opposed the H-1B visa program as part of his platform to encourage US companies to prioritize American labor over hiring foreign workers. During his 2016 campaign, Trump accused US companies of using H-1B visas “for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay.”

In 2020, Trump restricted access to H-1B visas on several occasions, part of his administration’s effort to curb legal immigration while responding to the changing economic conditions brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Trump’s comments siding with Musk represent another instance of the president-elect growing closer to the tech mogul. On Friday, the president-elect posted on social media a private message apparently intended for Musk asking when he plans to pay another visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

The video in the player above is from a previous report.

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