H-1B visas should be relied on to fill "deficits" in the job market while providing "Americans jobs first," Corey Lewandowski, senior adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, told Newsmax on Monday.
"First and foremost, we have to all recognize that we have a massive immigration problem," Lewandowski told "National Report."
"The first thing the president is going to do is he's going to close our border. That's the most important thing. Then we're going to start deporting the bad guys, those illegals that are here that came in without doing the proper vetting or without the proper paperwork."
Lewandowski also commented on the controversial remarks Trump and his top adviser Elon Musk made over the weekend in favor of H-1B visas, which Trump described as "a great program" that he has "used … many times" to hire workers.
"What we should do is we should determine as a country what jobs Americans are able to fill and do we have a deficit in a specific skill set that we need those H-1B visas to come into?" Lewandowski said. "I don't know if that's actually been determined yet."
"Other countries around the world," he continued, "have a merit-based immigration system, so if they need a certain skill set, they go out to those individuals and they try and recruit those."
Lewandowski said he is "not opposed to that, but it's about putting America first, not America last. So for us, I think we have to provide Americans jobs first."
Americans "can compete with anybody on the world stage if we've got a fair opportunity," Lewandowski concluded. "Before we start importing skilled workers from other places, we should ensure that those Americans aren't able to fill those positions, in my opinion, and we should also make sure we're closing the border and deporting the bad guys."
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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