President Trump has signed an order which will revamp the H-1B program, which is now used to employ highly skilled workers from overseas.
President Trump's promises were well-received by the crowd, including workers who said they hope the order will boost production.
Oddly, as Snap-On Tools CEO Nicholas Pinchuk was praising Trump's executive order, he was also calling for something the document failed to note altogether: worker training.
Speaking at a tool-making company in Kenosha, Wisconsin before signing the executive order, Mr Trump said that his administration was starting "a long overdue reform of H-1B visas. Any process by which the government targets workplaces must include a protocol to assist not only impacted USA workers, but also H-1B workers who are particularly vulnerable given their immigration status, and who can be victims of visa abuse by unscrupulous employers". The tech industry has argued that the H-1B program is needed because it encourages students to stay in the USA after getting degrees in high-tech specialties - and because companies can't always find enough American workers with the skills they need.
Mr Trump's order, entitled "Buy American, Hire American", does not go as far as his pledge as a candidate but still proposes radical changes to the programme under his "America First" economic nationalist agenda. "Instead, they should be given to the most skilled and highest paid applicants and they should never, ever be used to replace Americans", Trump said. The commerce secretary is to review how to close loopholes in existing rules and provide recommendations to the president.
The order specifically asks the secretary to review waivers of these rules in free-trade agreements.
Simonson cited concerns with steel that might have been melted down from scrap metal that could have come from outside the United States, for example, and tracing its origins before that point.
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Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., urged Trump to skip further study and support her bill to rebuild US infrastructure with American iron and steel. Medina, who leads sales-automation company Outreach, said it's possible the executive order will mean fewer visas for outsourcing companies and more available for startups, who work to hire people with specific, harder to find technical skills. Trump-branded products, including ties, suits, dress shirts, furniture, bedding, vodka, home goods and accessories for his luxury hotels, have all been manufactured outside the United States.
It namely instructs the Labour, Justice and Homeland Security departments to tackle issues in the H-1B system and draw up reforms aimed at bringing the program back to its original intent: awarding visas to the most skilled and highly-paid applicants.
"No one can compete with American workers when they're given a fair and level playing field, which has not happened for decades", he said. "And we should end it".
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.
Critics disagree, asserting that some companies use the high-tech visa program to bring in lower-paid workers who have the same skills as USA workers. The staffing companies then sell their services to corporate clients.
President Trump has set the wheels in motion for H-1B visa reform. This year, 199,000 applications were received. But he added, "It's not as aggressive as it needs to be". He campaigned on the promise of returning manufacturing jobs that have been lost in Upper Midwest states.
The official later clarified that it was the program rules that made it easy for misuse.
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