U.S. President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Friday, Sept. 19, to restrict entry into the United States of certain “H-1B aliens” as nonimmigrant workers, requiring a $100,000 payment to accompany or supplement H-1B petitions for new visa applications with the aim of curbing “abuses that displace U.S. workers and undermine national security.”

An H-1B visa is a nonimmigrant visa that allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations, jobs requiring at least a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent, usually in fields like technology, engineering, or finance.

White House officials issued a fact-sheet Saturday, Sept. 20, in efforts to clarify the impact of the proclamation which, according to the White House, “restricts entry for aliens as nonimmigrants to perform services in specialty occupations in the H-1B program unless their petition is accompanied by a $100,000 payment.”

They said it directs the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security (HSI) to “restrict approvals for petitions from aliens that are currently outside the United States that are not accompanied by the payment, and allows case-by-case exemptions if in the national interest.”

They said the proclamation requires employers to retain documentation of payment remittance with the U.S. Secretary of State verifying payment during the petition process and both the State and HSI departments denying entry for non-payment “for the relevant aliens” and taking other relevant steps needed to implement the proclamation.

They said it also requires the U.S. Department of Labor and HSI to issue joint guidance for verification, enforcement, audits, and penalties, further directs the U.S. Secretary of Labor to initiate rulemaking to revise the prevailing wage levels for the H-1B program, and direct the Secretary of HSI to initiate rulemaking to prioritize high-skilled, high-paid H-1B workers.

White House officials said the aim was to combat what they said were H-1B abuses, as American workers are being replaced with “lower-paid foreign labor, creating an economic and national security threat to the nation.”

They said the share of IT workers with H-1B visas has risen from 32% in Financial Year 2003 to over 65% in recent years. They said unemployment among recent computer science graduates has reached 6.1% and 7.5% for computer engineering graduates, and more than double the rates for biology or art history majors.

White House officials went on to say that the number of foreign STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering & Math] workers in the United States has more than doubled between 2000 and 2019, while overall STEM employment only increased 44.5% during that time, and said American companies are laying off their American technology workers and seemingly replacing them with H-1B workers, giving the following examples.

They said one company was approved for 5,189 H-1B workers in financial year 2025, while laying off roughly 16,000 U.S. employees this year. They said another company was approved for 1,698 H-1B workers in Financial Year 2025, and announced it was laying off 2,400 U.S. workers in Oregon in July.

According to the White House, a third company has reduced its U.S. workforce by 27,000 since 2022 while receiving 25,075 H-1B approvals. White House officials said another company reportedly cut 1,000 American jobs in February despite receiving 1,137 H-1B approvals for FY 2025.

They said American IT workers have also been reportedly forced to train their foreign replacements under nondisclosure agreements. They added that the H-1B program is creating disincentives for future American workers to choose STEM careers, and said this threatens the country’s national security.

They went on to say that the president is imposing higher costs on companies seeking to use the H-1B program in order to address what they described as “the abuse of the program,” in efforts “to stop the undercutting of wages, and protect our national security.”

According to the White House, voters gave Trump “a resounding mandate to put American workers first.” Officials added, “He has worked every day to deliver on that commitment.” They went on to say that Trump has “aggressively and successfully negotiated new trade deals to bring manufacturing jobs back home and attract new investments to the U.S.”

They said that he’s using tariffs as a “strategic tool to rebuild American manufacturing, secure supply chains, and protect U.S. national security,” and has implemented several Section 232 tariffs “to protect manufacturing that has been undermined by unfair trade practices and global excess capacity.”

White House officials said since returning to the presidency, all employment gains have gone to American-born workers, which they said was unlike last year during the same period under former Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden, when they said all employment gains went to foreign-born workers.

They added that the Trump administration has also issued new guidance to ensure “illegal aliens” are not allowed access to federal workforce development resources and related grants, protecting job trainings for American workers.

The top 25 employers of H1-B workers in The Bronx in 2025, according to myvisajobs.com, is attached above with Norwood’s Montefiore Medical Center topping the list. Many other medical centers like Jacobi as well as Fordham University are also in the top 25. The full list can be accessed here.

The fee appears to be per applicant and for new / future H1-B applicants only according to reporting by Axios. However, as H1-B visa holders typically have their visas renewed every few years, Norwood News reached out to the White House for clarification on whether those holders who are up for visa renewal are affected or not, and since renewal usually requires travel outside the country [to process the renewal] at the U.S. embassy of the visa holder / applicant’s country of origin.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has clarified that the fee is not an annual fee and does not affect renewals.

Norwood News reached out to Montefiore Medical Center, Jacobi, and Fordham University for comment. We will share any feedback we receive.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.