September 25, 2025 • 10 mins
LISTEN and SUBSCRIBE on:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i
WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:
https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured
The White House just floated a $100,000 H-1B visa fee and a $1 million “gold card” for wealthy immigrants—and no one, not even Trump’s team, seems to know what it really means. In this episode:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i
WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:
https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured
The White House just floated a $100,000 H-1B visa fee and a $1 million “gold card” for wealthy immigrants—and no one, not even Trump’s team, seems to know what it really means. In this episode:
- Why Silicon Valley is in full-blown panic over the proposal
- How Lutnick fumbled the rollout, confusing even Trump’s own base
- The real problem with H-1Bs: do they depress wages or fill gaps Americans can’t?
- Why our broken schools and low literacy rates feed this crisis
- The line between fair immigration policy and creating a migrant underclass
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We have ourselves a immigration and visa fiasco. Yeah. Anyway,
I did a podcast on this a couple of days
ago and tried to, you know, outline what the new
rules are if those rules stick. I don't even know quite, Frank.
(00:36):
I got that information from the Press Secretary of the
United States. Again, Howard Lutnik is. He's shooting from the hip.
No one knows what's going on here. So we got
this new one hundred thousand dollars fee that what Nick
(00:57):
did propose, Okay, he brought in Lutnik brought in a
bunch of anti immigration, anti visa groups to basically sell
them on this idea of a one hundred thousand dollars
h one B visa. Okay, he's trying to win them over,
(01:19):
win them over, because he's been trying to basically sell
them on this new Donald Trump gold card, this cold card,
which would provide a path to citizenship for wealthy foreigners
willing to pay one million dollars. Yeah, some of these
(01:41):
anti immigration groups, they op that's pay for play. They
didn't like it. Lutnick said that it would actually reduce immigration.
But then he brought up this huge fee H one
B visa program. They were warming up to it again.
(02:06):
They announced it, announced it at the White House. They
weren't clear on what it meant, and Silicon Valley had
a collective freak out. Yeah, I'm talking you know, Nile
Rodgers lashk freak out. Yeah, they freaked out again. They
(02:27):
called up you talk about you know who they hire
and the volumes. It's a lot of a lot of
Silicon Valley companies hiring people h one BE visa problems. Again,
this is part of the issue. You've got a lot
of Trump's political base that wants to just shut the border,
throw everybody out, no immigration at all. And then you
(02:47):
also have CEOs that write big checks and a Again,
they can pick up the phone and they can call
the president at any time. So again you got two
conflicting forces that have influence within the Trump administration. Okay,
the meeting that Lutnik Trump's little dummy, I mean dummy,
(03:11):
He's like a little vent priloquist dummy sits on Trump's
lap and says what Trump wants him to say. He
said that the annual fee would be annual, and he
actually said it standing next to the President. Then they
walked it back. They Lutnik also through the anti immigration group,
(03:35):
won't send that they would suspend all other green card
categories outside of the gold card path. But then you know,
someone raised their hand and said, wait a second here,
what about you know, green cards for spouses of US citizens?
And he didn't even understand that. It was like good
(03:56):
point and made a note. Again. I don't know what
they're going to come up with when it comes this,
and I know what the right answer is. I do
know that we need to have workers come into the country.
I don't know necessarily what the need is exactly for
(04:19):
h one be visas. These are higher level jobs, higher
paying jobs. The issue that constantly comes up as well,
they're bringing these immigrants in from India. I don't like
the idea. They basically companies. Basically you serve at the
pleasure of the company you're working for. They don't like you.
(04:43):
You got to go home, They got to send you home.
I don't have really understood that. I've always understood that,
you know, if we need immigrants here into this country,
we'll bring and immigrants and you know, we'll turn them
into American citizens. The the idea out there that all these
(05:07):
H one B visas they are going to do press wages.
It's a concern obviously because of the status that they have. Again,
I've covered, you know, you know, horrible stories where American
corporations and again this, I'll be honest, this is why
I can never be I can never be a publicly
(05:27):
traded company. I can never do such a thing. You know,
I'm gonna save a few bucks here and there, We're
going to fire all of these workers that are American
and we're going to import all of this labor from India.
SEEO a company. Well, I got to do what's the
best interest of my shareholders. I could. I couldn't do it.
I couldn't do it. Some people could anyway, neither here
(05:49):
nor there. How many do we actually need? Are these
jobs that Americans will take? Will Americans do these jobs?
Do we actually have the Americans that will do them?
I've talked about the high level of unemployment for recent
college grads. Are they qualified to do this? Again? I
(06:12):
want to remind everyone that was it. Fifty three percent
of the country reads at a sixth grade level. Reads
at a sixth grade level. We have covered over the
past several weeks. Well, forget about it, We've covered for
(06:32):
the past several years, past several decades, the failing the
reality of failing American schools. Do we have people that
can actually do these jobs? I don't know. I don't know.
Do we have to import them? Because the issue is
(06:54):
going to be if these companies feel like they can't
get their workforce could be me, call me crazy. They're
going to start opening up shop and other places around
the globe. It was interesting, my early ride into the
gym was like four point fifteen in the morning, was
two days ago ahead. You know, one of the overnight
(07:17):
programs I'm listening to on CNBC and this guy from
Europe is talking about day you know, we may be
able to attract more business here to Europe quality of life.
Not to mention the fact we're willing to take in
some of these immigrants that will do this stuff. That's
going to be an issue. Companies will adjust, they will
(07:39):
change things up overall the American people. It's the latest
polling done from the Associated Press. Americans are more likely
than they were back in March of twenty twenty four
to say it's a major benefit that people who come
to the US legally contribute to economic growth and help
(08:02):
American companies get the expertise of skilled workers. Survey also
shows that Americans are less likely than they were in
January to say the number of illegal immigrants to the
US should be reduced. Okay, I want to be perfectly,
perfectly clear right now, there's a right way and a
(08:28):
wrong way to do immigration. We get caught up in politics.
I don't again, I think that there's enough people that
would love to come to the United States that we
can bring in the best and the brightest and also say, hey,
you know what, you assimilate, you learn the language, you
(08:49):
pass the citizenship test, you do all of these things.
I have a really big problem with slave labor. I do.
I don't know about you. I got a big problem
with slave labor. I don't think we should be bringing
in an underclass migrant workers, these nonsensical visas, any of
(09:10):
this stuff, Why all that's going to do? Quite frankly,
is it's just going to lower wages for everybody. If
you're gonna if you're gonna bring people in, if we
need workers are gonna come in. Shouldn't everybody have to
compete on a level playing field. That makes sense. We
don't have that now. Again, these H one B visas
(09:33):
are a problem, but there's the other visas as well
for seasonal workers. Again, I have people that are in
the hospitality industry a very very difficult time finding you know,
workers to staff their hotels on you know, Fire Island
and Long Island and the Hampton's and a myriad of
other places. These are things that need to be dealt with. Again, Uh,
(09:56):
there's a compromise that that could be had there really is.
It's just a matter of whether or not they're they're
willing to have it. Watch Dog on Wall Street dot
Com
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We have ourselves a immigration and visa fiasco. Yeah. Anyway,
I did a podcast on this a couple of days
ago and tried to, you know, outline what the new
rules are if those rules stick. I don't even know quite, Frank.
(00:36):
I got that information from the Press Secretary of the
United States. Again, Howard Lutnik is. He's shooting from the hip.
No one knows what's going on here. So we got
this new one hundred thousand dollars fee that what Nick
(00:57):
did propose, Okay, he brought in Lutnik brought in a
bunch of anti immigration, anti visa groups to basically sell
them on this idea of a one hundred thousand dollars
h one B visa. Okay, he's trying to win them over,
(01:19):
win them over, because he's been trying to basically sell
them on this new Donald Trump gold card, this cold card,
which would provide a path to citizenship for wealthy foreigners
willing to pay one million dollars. Yeah, some of these
(01:41):
anti immigration groups, they op that's pay for play. They
didn't like it. Lutnick said that it would actually reduce immigration.
But then he brought up this huge fee H one
B visa program. They were warming up to it again.
(02:06):
They announced it, announced it at the White House. They
weren't clear on what it meant, and Silicon Valley had
a collective freak out. Yeah, I'm talking you know, Nile
Rodgers lashk freak out. Yeah, they freaked out again. They
(02:27):
called up you talk about you know who they hire
and the volumes. It's a lot of a lot of
Silicon Valley companies hiring people h one BE visa problems. Again,
this is part of the issue. You've got a lot
of Trump's political base that wants to just shut the border,
throw everybody out, no immigration at all. And then you
(02:47):
also have CEOs that write big checks and a Again,
they can pick up the phone and they can call
the president at any time. So again you got two
conflicting forces that have influence within the Trump administration. Okay,
the meeting that Lutnik Trump's little dummy, I mean dummy,
(03:11):
He's like a little vent priloquist dummy sits on Trump's
lap and says what Trump wants him to say. He
said that the annual fee would be annual, and he
actually said it standing next to the President. Then they
walked it back. They Lutnik also through the anti immigration group,
(03:35):
won't send that they would suspend all other green card
categories outside of the gold card path. But then you know,
someone raised their hand and said, wait a second here,
what about you know, green cards for spouses of US citizens?
And he didn't even understand that. It was like good
(03:56):
point and made a note. Again. I don't know what
they're going to come up with when it comes this,
and I know what the right answer is. I do
know that we need to have workers come into the country.
I don't know necessarily what the need is exactly for
(04:19):
h one be visas. These are higher level jobs, higher
paying jobs. The issue that constantly comes up as well,
they're bringing these immigrants in from India. I don't like
the idea. They basically companies. Basically you serve at the
pleasure of the company you're working for. They don't like you.
(04:43):
You got to go home, They got to send you home.
I don't have really understood that. I've always understood that,
you know, if we need immigrants here into this country,
we'll bring and immigrants and you know, we'll turn them
into American citizens. The the idea out there that all these
(05:07):
H one B visas they are going to do press wages.
It's a concern obviously because of the status that they have. Again,
I've covered, you know, you know, horrible stories where American
corporations and again this, I'll be honest, this is why
I can never be I can never be a publicly
(05:27):
traded company. I can never do such a thing. You know,
I'm gonna save a few bucks here and there, We're
going to fire all of these workers that are American
and we're going to import all of this labor from India.
SEEO a company. Well, I got to do what's the
best interest of my shareholders. I could. I couldn't do it.
I couldn't do it. Some people could anyway, neither here
(05:49):
nor there. How many do we actually need? Are these
jobs that Americans will take? Will Americans do these jobs?
Do we actually have the Americans that will do them?
I've talked about the high level of unemployment for recent
college grads. Are they qualified to do this? Again? I
(06:12):
want to remind everyone that was it. Fifty three percent
of the country reads at a sixth grade level. Reads
at a sixth grade level. We have covered over the
past several weeks. Well, forget about it, We've covered for
(06:32):
the past several years, past several decades, the failing the
reality of failing American schools. Do we have people that
can actually do these jobs? I don't know. I don't know.
Do we have to import them? Because the issue is
(06:54):
going to be if these companies feel like they can't
get their workforce could be me, call me crazy. They're
going to start opening up shop and other places around
the globe. It was interesting, my early ride into the
gym was like four point fifteen in the morning, was
two days ago ahead. You know, one of the overnight
(07:17):
programs I'm listening to on CNBC and this guy from
Europe is talking about day you know, we may be
able to attract more business here to Europe quality of life.
Not to mention the fact we're willing to take in
some of these immigrants that will do this stuff. That's
going to be an issue. Companies will adjust, they will
(07:39):
change things up overall the American people. It's the latest
polling done from the Associated Press. Americans are more likely
than they were back in March of twenty twenty four
to say it's a major benefit that people who come
to the US legally contribute to economic growth and help
(08:02):
American companies get the expertise of skilled workers. Survey also
shows that Americans are less likely than they were in
January to say the number of illegal immigrants to the
US should be reduced. Okay, I want to be perfectly,
perfectly clear right now, there's a right way and a
(08:28):
wrong way to do immigration. We get caught up in politics.
I don't again, I think that there's enough people that
would love to come to the United States that we
can bring in the best and the brightest and also say, hey,
you know what, you assimilate, you learn the language, you
(08:49):
pass the citizenship test, you do all of these things.
I have a really big problem with slave labor. I do.
I don't know about you. I got a big problem
with slave labor. I don't think we should be bringing
in an underclass migrant workers, these nonsensical visas, any of
(09:10):
this stuff, Why all that's going to do? Quite frankly,
is it's just going to lower wages for everybody. If
you're gonna if you're gonna bring people in, if we
need workers are gonna come in. Shouldn't everybody have to
compete on a level playing field. That makes sense. We
don't have that now. Again, these H one B visas
(09:33):
are a problem, but there's the other visas as well
for seasonal workers. Again, I have people that are in
the hospitality industry a very very difficult time finding you know,
workers to staff their hotels on you know, Fire Island
and Long Island and the Hampton's and a myriad of
other places. These are things that need to be dealt with. Again, Uh,
(09:56):
there's a compromise that that could be had there really is.
It's just a matter of whether or not they're they're
willing to have it. Watch Dog on Wall Street dot
Com
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