“We want to encourage talented and highly skilled people to pursue career options in the U.S.,” President Donald Trump said. | Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images Immigration Trump floats path to citizenship for specialized visa holders

President Donald Trump seemingly teased plans for broader immigration reform on Friday, tweeting that he is open to a new path to citizenship for holders of a visa for high-skilled workers known as H-1B.

The social media post comes as the White House negotiates with congressional Democrats to strike a deal to end the ongoing government shutdown, now in its 21st day. Trump has thus far refused to reopen the government unless Congress appropriates money for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, but on Friday seemed to suggest that he would be open larger immigration reform proposals.


“H1-B [sic] holders in the United States can rest assured that changes are soon coming which will bring both simplicity and certainty to your stay, including a potential path to citizenship,” Trump wrote online Friday morning.

The H-1B program is frequently used by tech companies in the U.S. to bring in highly skilled foreign workers for specialized, in-demand jobs and has been a target of the Trump administration over to criticisms that it displaces American workers. The program grants 65,000 employment visas each year, plus an additional 20,000 for U.S. master's degree holders, but the Trump administration’s eagerness to limit immigration has added a measure of uncertainty for visa holders and the companies looking to employ them.

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The result has been an influx of skilled workers flooding into more immigrant-friendly countries like Canada in historic numbers, where the government has tried to capitalize on the trend, promising visas for some skilled workers within two weeks.

Though the Trump administration has sought to clamp down on abuses of the program alleged by members of both parties in Congress, the president's tweet Friday highlighted its advantages.

“We want to encourage talented and highly skilled people to pursue career options in the U.S.,” he said.

Trump first floated worker-friendly changes to the H-1B program last week following a huddle with congressional leaders over the shutdown, touting the program as one area where he saw a possible compromise with Democrats. Trump said high-skilled immigration came up and proved a rare point of agreement during the meeting.

“I get calls from the great tech companies and they're saying we don't allow people at the top of their class at the best schools in the country, we don't allow them to stay in our country," he told reporters. "So they end up going back to China and Japan and so many other countries all over the countries and we don't keep them."

"We don't want to lose our great companies because we have a ridiculous policy that we won't accept smart people," Trump added. "So call it politically correct or not, but we have to let these great brilliant companies have the smartest people in the world."

But Trump’s proposals in recent days run counter to where the H-1B program was trending. Under Trump, administration officials have tightened the regulations that govern the H-1B program.‘

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that handles visa paperwork, has framed the policy changes as an effort to combat fraud and deny visas to workers with questionable skills.

However, employers seeking specialized workers argue the changes make the visa process unpredictable and can disrupt operations.

Business Roundtable, a group of CEOs from dozens of prominent U.S. companies, sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in August that blasted recent changes to the program, railing against “arbitrary and inconsistent” visa decisions.

Some of the biggest changes to clamp down on foreign workers have yet to come.

The administration plans to publish its so-called public charge rule in the coming year, which could block immigrants from getting green cards if they’ve received certain government benefits or if they’re deemed likely to do so in the future.

The administration also is expected to roll back work authorization for spouses of H-1B visa holders this year, reversing a 2015 policy under President Barack Obama.

President Trump hasn’t endorsed any legislation that would provide a pathway to citizenship for H-1B visa holders, as he mentioned in his tweet Friday — and he wouldn’t be able to provide that through executive action.

Under existing immigration law, visa holders already can apply for a green card, although wait times can be years for people from certain countries. If they successfully obtain a green card, they can apply for citizenship after a five-year waiting period.

The president endorsed a bill in 2017 that would halve legal immigration over a decade. While the measure would have shifted the immigration system to prize skills over family ties, it didn’t provide a new pathway to citizenship for H-1B workers.



Trump’s tweet that “changes are soon coming” could reference a regulation expected in coming months to rework a lottery system used to allocate H-1B visas amid high demand. But business groups fear the new system could be hastily implemented and have called for the administration to delay the rollout to ensure it will function properly.

The Trump administration also plans to issue a proposed regulation later this year that would revised the definition of a “specialty occupation” in the H-1B program “to increase focus on obtaining the best and the brightest foreign nationals,” according to a regulatory agenda.

But while Trump hinted Friday that he might be interested in broader immigration reform, shutdown negotiations thus far have mostly steered clear of issues unrelated to the border wall even though members of both parties have indicated that other immigration issues might offer fodder for a compromise to be struck.

Democratic leaders, wary of Trump’s mercurial nature, have repeatedly said that they were not interested in striking any kind of deal with the president that would trade wall funding for other immigration priorities, though those proposals would most likely involve a path to citizenship or other protections for so-called Dreamers.

During a visit on Thursday to the southern border, Trump told reporters that he would be open to a deal to help immigrants brought into the U.S. illegally as children, though he declined to link it directly to reopening the government.

"We want to help the Dreamers," he said.

Stephen Overly and Alexander Panetta contributed to this report.

