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US Republican Senator Mike Lee has floated the possibility of a pause on issuing H1B visas, a large chunk of which is obtained by highly skilled Indian workers.

Republican Senator Mike Lee (Bloomberg)

“Is it time to pause H1B visas?” Lee asked on social media platform X in response to a post that claimed a Walmart executive received kickbacks in order to preferentially hire Indian H1B tech workers over Americans.

Lee is the latest figure in the Republican establishment to wade into the growing debate over H1B visas. First introduced in 1990, H1B visas allow US companies to hire foreign workers who have speciality occupations. The visas are granted for a period of three years and then can be extended to a maximum of six years.

According to the American Immigration Council, the US government caps the number of H1B visas annually at 65,000, with an additional 20,000 visas made available to workers who complete a master’s or PhD qualification at a US institution of higher education. Technology professionals from India have consistently been among the largest beneficiaries of the H1B visa program.

Lately, the program has become controversial in America. Prominent voices, including Vice President JD Vance, have raised concern that technology companies have hired foreign-born workers at the expense of American professionals.

“You see big tech firms laying off 9,000 employees and then applying for thousands of overseas work visas — it just doesn’t add up. That kind of displacement and math concerns me. The President has said we want the best and brightest to make America their home, and that’s good. But I don’t support companies firing thousands of American workers and then claiming they can’t find talent here,” Vance said on a podcast in July.

Joseph Edlow, the newly appointed director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency, has indicated that the Trump administration will tighten H1B visa rules.

“I really do think that the way H1B needs to be used, and this is one of my favourite phrases, is to, along with a lot of other parts of immigration, supplement, not supplant, the US economy and US businesses and US workers,” Edlow said in an interview in July. According to reports in the US media, the administration may introduce new rules that do away with the H1B lottery in favour of a system that grants visas based on wages, from highest to lowest.

Conservative commentators such as Steve Bannon and Laura Loomer had earlier come out against the program, even as Trump expressed support to it.

“It’s a great program. I have many H1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H1B,” Trump said in an interview.

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