Prez Trump's proposed changes to visa rules assailed by chip industry

The F-1 student visa serves as a critical pipeline to the tech workforce

- Bloomberg

Trump has acknowledged the difficulty in balancing between fortifying domestic industry and tightening immigration.

(REUTERS)

Semiconductor industry leaders are warning the Trump administration that a proposed tightening of visa rules risks shrinking a vital talent pool and undermining efforts to expand chip manufacturing in the US.

More than two dozen semiconductor executives—including two unnamed CEOs—have objected to a Department of Homeland Security plan to put stricter limits on the F-1 student visas that serve as a critical pipeline to the tech workforce. Their mostly anonymous comments, ahead of a formal rule-making, joined a total of more than 17,000 submissions from across academia.

In commentary filed with the government, chip executives questioned the move. "I am deeply troubled," one unidentified chief executive officer (CEO) wrote. "The global race for chip supremacy is intensifying, and these restrictions risk ceding ground to nations with more welcoming immigration policies."

Changes proposed in August to student visas pose an added challenge to the chip industry as it grapples with a separate Trump administration decision to charge $100,000 for most new H-1B visa applications. While semiconductor makers have stayed largely silent over the new six-figure H-1B payments, several major companies face the prospect of millions in added fees for skilled-worker visas.

Taken together, the visa changes highlight growing tension between President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown and his goal of boosting domestic production of semiconductors and other advanced goods to stay ahead of China. An immigration raid last month on a Hyundai Motor Co.-LG Energy Solution Ltd battery plant being built in Georgia further illustrated the challenge in relying on foreign-born talent to jump-start new factories.