(José Niño, Headline USA) President Donald Trump defended H-1B skilled worker visas during a Fox News interview on Monday, sparking backlash from his MAGA base while highlighting tensions created by a controversial September ICE raid that detained hundreds of South Korean engineers at a Georgia battery plant.
The contentious exchange between Trump and host Laura Ingraham centered on whether America needs foreign workers to fill specialized technical roles. When Ingraham argued against bringing in “tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of foreign workers,” stating “We have plenty of talented people here,” Trump disagreed sharply.
NOW – Trump says that H1B immigrants are necessary since there are not plenty of talented Americans.
Laura: "We have plenty of talented people here!"
Trump: "No, you don't. No, you don't… No, you don't have… You don't have certain talents and you have to… People have to… pic.twitter.com/xEfZRIbKPd
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) November 12, 2025
“No, you don’t. No, you don’t. You don’t have certain talents and you have to… People have to learn,” Trump responded. He continued, “You can’t take people off an unemployment line and say, I’m gonna put you into a factory. We’re gonna make missiles.”
Trump specifically cited the September 4, 2025 ICE operation at the Hyundai LG Energy Solution battery plant construction site in Ellabell, Georgia. That raid, described as “the largest, single site enforcement operation in the history of homeland security investigations,” resulted in the arrest of approximately 475 workers, including over 300 South Korean nationals who were skilled engineers and technicians.
“In Georgia, they raided because they wanted illegal immigrants. They had people from South Korea that made batteries all their lives. Making batteries are very complicated. It’s not an easy thing and very dangerous. A lot of explosions, a lot of problems,” Trump explained. “They had five or 600 people. Early stages to make batteries and to teach people how to do it well. They wanted them to get out of the country.”
Trump argued against the deportations, stating “You’re gonna need that, Laura. I know you and I disagree on this. You can’t just say, a country’s coming in, going to invest $10 billion to build a plant and gonna take people off an unemployment line who haven’t worked in five years, and they’re gonna start making the missiles. It doesn’t work that well.”
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
