Trump Signs Order That Could Lead to Curbs on Foreign Workers

KENOSHA, Wis. — President Trump — hammering his “America First” campaign theme after recent policy flip-flops that have infuriated his populist base — signed an executive order on Tuesday authorizing studies and tweaks in government rules that could lead to restrictions on foreign technical workers.

Mr. Trump said the order, signed at the sprawling Snap-on tool factory in Kenosha, Wis., was a way to “restore the American dream” and a means to end the “theft of American prosperity,” which he said had been brought on by low-wage immigrant labor.

The order calls for a series of relatively modest steps, including a multiagency report on changes needed for the H-1B visa program, under which the government admits 85,000 foreign workers annually, many of them in the high-tech, industrial, medical and science fields.

Mr. Trump criticized the visa program, determined by a lottery, as an off-the-rails initiative that has driven down wages for American workers in the same fields.

H-1B visas “should include only the most skilled and highest-paid applicants and should never, ever be used to replace American workers,” he told a gathering of about 500 workers and local luminaries, including the White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, a Kenosha native.

Technology executives, who have generally been critical of Mr. Trump’s policies, were tentatively positive about the White House’s efforts to change how work visas are doled out to foreign workers.

The technology industry relies heavily on the H-1B visa program to bring in engineering talent from overseas, and executives say they simply cannot hire enough American workers to fill jobs at their companies. They insist that they do not hire these workers so they can pay them less.

Technology leaders say they have been unable to get as many visas as they need because the system is flooded with immigration applications by outsourcing companies, who generally hire lower-skilled, lower-paid technical workers. Big technology companies have long supported efforts to change the H-1B process — by increasing application fees or giving priority to applicants with advanced degrees.

The White House signaled that it, too, wanted to move in that direction, although there is still considerable uncertainty around what the changes to the visa program will look like.

“I think people are cautiously optimistic that this will be O.K., and maybe even better,” said Tom Alberg, a venture capitalist at Madrona Venture Group, a Seattle firm that invests in high-tech start-ups.