Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) said Sunday on ABC's “This Week” that the H-1B visa program, which allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in certain occupations, “doesn't support our country. “It is extremely important to the country's economy.”
Carl: Okay. Now let's move on to Elon Musk and most of the rest of the MAGA right. What is your position on the issue of visas for highly skilled foreign workers?
Lawler: Well, let's look at this as a macro problem. First, we all agree that we need to secure our borders. A catastrophe occurred under Joe Biden's administration, with 10.5 million immigrants flooding into the country. For example, in New York, billions of taxpayer dollars are wasted on free housing, clothing, food, education, and medical care for illegal immigrants. In other words, the current system is broken. We need to secure our borders. We all agree on that. That has to be your top priority. But here is the reality we have to deal with. The population is predicted to decline by the end of this century. Over the past 15 years, the fertility rate has fallen from two children per woman to 1.66 children per woman. Therefore, the reality is that the long-term population decline continues. There is a labor shortage: doctors, nurses, engineers, home health aides, advertising workers, construction workers, hospitality workers. We need immigrants. We need a working, legal immigration system. Fundamentally, I believe that we need a system that focuses on our economic needs as a country and, above all, a merit-based immigration system. My wife is an immigrant. I have been going through this process with her. It's a fundamentally broken system.
But with the H-1B visa program, we're talking about 65,000 visas and an additional 20,000 visas for master's degree holders, and the fact is, it's very important to our economy. As President Trump has said, this is a program that he has used in his business for many years, and it's clearly something that has benefited our economy. The United States was built on immigration, and it is essential to immigration.
Carl: But let me ask you — but just ask me.
Lawler: Continued growth in our economy.
Karl: But what's behind it is, I mean, it's an all-out war to try to push back on Musk and other tech entrepreneurs who are close to Trump on this issue. I mean, you heard what we said at the beginning. So Steve Bannon is calling Trump a baby, saying this program is a scam, that it's about putting indentured servants to work for tech companies, and that the tech oligarchs are taking over the party.
I mean, this is across the board, I mean, you're expressing a view like the one I just heard, very similar to what Elon Musk said. Why would this cause this kind of backlash from many of Trump's other staunchest supporters?
Lawler: Look, I don't talk about conspiracy theories, so you'll have to ask Steve Bannon and others, but look, the facts are this.
Carl: Okay.
Lawler: There's no question that we want an America where Americans are employed and our workforce needs are met. That means we need to revamp our education system, from kindergarten to high school. We need a vocational school. We need to put kids on an early STEM trajectory so they can become the engineers of tomorrow. But in reality, India produces far more engineers than our country. So it's both fixing the education system and making the legal immigration system work.
Carl: Okay.
Lawler: I agree with my colleagues who have been very hard-line on border issues. We need to stop the mass influx of illegal immigrants.
Karl: Yes. That's another issue.
Lawler: But you can't have nothing —
Carl: Okay.
Lawler: It's impossible to have no immigration at all. It will cripple the economy in the long run.
