The Trump administration's decision to raise the H1B annual visa fee to 100,000 U.S. dollars will only discourage skilled foreign workers and negatively impact U.S. competitiveness, according to Joseph Williams, a former senior editor at U.S. News and World Report. U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed a new rule requiring U.S. companies to pay an annual fee of 100,000 U.S. dollars for each highly skilled foreign worker holding an H1B visa. Amid confusion from holders and employers, the administration later clarified that the fee would only apply to new applicants. In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Williams asserted that the policy change would deal a hefty blow to many of the country's smaller businesses. "Few people have the kind of deep pockets that pay 100,000 dollars for an employee that may be here two, three years, maybe four, who knows, but it's a one-time expense that a lot of small companies, start-ups and non-profits can't really -- they don't have those kind of deep pockets. It's not designed to help them. It's designed to give a leg up to some larger corporations. And it's also designed to send a message, another message, on immigration and that Trump is trying to crack down and try and promote more Americans for these jobs," he said. The visa will deter prospective foreign workers from coming to the U.S., ultimately harming the country’s competitiveness and future economic growth, according to Williams. "The big problem there is that in United States, one of the main reasons why we have these visas is the U.S. is not producing nearly enough people in the kind of skilled jobs or that can do the kind of skilled jobs that foreign experts can. I'm thinking about the raid on Hyundai, we had people coming from Korea who knew how to do this, who knew how to establish and step up a company," he said. On Sept 4, U.S. time, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided the construction site of an electric vehicle battery plant run by a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution. A total of 475 individuals were arrested, including 316 South Korean workers who had been held at the Folkston detention center in Georgia. "We don't have that kind of workers. According to OECD stats, we are 26th in math in the world and 10th in science in the world, those are not the kind of numbers where U.S. education system will produce the number of people who can do these jobs, number one, and number two, have that kind of quality that can do them as homegrown applicants to these jobs, so I think it's all very much message-sending, but whether not the message sending will hurt American economy or American competitiveness I think the long run could be a problem here," the analyst added. SHOTLIST: FILE: Washington D.C., USA - Date Unknown 1. Various of White House, U.S. national flag; USA - Sept 21, 2025 2. SOUNDBITE (English) Joseph Williams, former senior editor, U.S. News and World Report (partially overlaid with shots 3-6): "Few people have the kind of deep pockets that pay 100,000 dollars for an employee that may be here two, three years, maybe four, who knows, but it's a one-time expense that a lot of small companies, start-ups and non-profits can't really -- they don't have those kind of deep pockets. It's not designed to help them. It's designed to give a leg up to some larger corporations. And it's also designed to send a message, another message, on immigration and that Trump is trying to crack down and try and promote more Americans for these jobs. But the big problem there is that in the United States, one of the main reasons why we have these visas is the U.S. is not producing nearly enough people in the kind of skilled jobs or that can do the kind of skilled jobs that foreign experts can. I'm thinking about the raid on Hyundai, we had people coming from Korea who knew how to do this, who knew how to establish and step-up a company. We don't have that kind of workers. According to OECD stats, we are 26th in math in the world and 10th in science in the world, those are not the kind of numbers where U.S. education system will produce the number of people who can do these jobs, number one, and number two, have that kind of quality that can do them as homegrown applicants to these jobs, so I think it's all very much message-sending, but whether not the message sending will hurt American economy or American competitiveness, I think, the long run could be a problem here."; [SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE] FILE: Philadelphia, USA - October 2024 3. U.S. national flag; FILE: New York City, USA - October 2024 4. Various of buildings, pedestrians, traffic; FILE: Detroit, Michigan, USA - March 17, 2025 5. Various of sculptures, buildings; Seoul, South Korea - Sept 9, 2025 6. Various of newspaper showing images of arrested South Korean workers; people reading newspaper in street-side window; [SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE] FILE: New York City, USA - Oct 2024 7. Various of pedestrians, traffic, buildings. [Restrictions: No access Chinese mainland]