Fox News’ Laura Ingraham put President Trump on the spot this week over H?1B work visas and the flood of Chinese students filling spots at America’s universities, and the exchange was anything but cozy. Ingraham pressed the argument that those slots should belong to American kids, but Mr. Trump pushed back, arguing that our higher?education and high?skill industries simply could not survive a crude pullback. The terse on?air back?and?forth crystallized a deeper split within the right over principles versus practical governance.
Trump’s core point is straightforward and patriotic: America needs talent, and sometimes that talent comes from abroad because we no longer produce every specialty domestically. He warned that slamming the door on foreign students and skilled workers would hollow out universities and cripple industries that rely on niche expertise. This isn’t selling out America, it’s defending our institutions and ensuring our factories, labs, and campuses keep humming.
That said, no conservative worth their salt is advocating open borders or blind acceptance of foreign nationals who threaten our security or steal intellectual property. The administration has shown it can—and will—target bad actors and institutions that don’t protect American interests, even blocking enrollment at certain universities when warranted. Pragmatism means keeping the good that helps our economy while ruthlessly cutting off the risks.
We should applaud policies that combine toughness with common sense: vet hostile foreign influence, clamp down on espionage, and revoke visas for clear threats, while still recruiting the engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs who build American prosperity. Recent moves to scrutinize and revoke visas tied to national?security concerns demonstrate the kind of surgical approach conservatives should demand. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater would be a gift to our adversaries and a disaster for working Americans.
The real conservative task now is to push for smarter immigration reforms—overhaul H?1B rules to protect American wages and workers, tighten university compliance, and speed enforcement where fraud or theft is found. Rage?posting and purity tests from the sidelines accomplish nothing; policy wins come from shrewd, enforceable rules that preserve jobs and keep our nation secure. President Trump’s willingness to defend a nuanced position shows a leader trying to govern, not just grandstand.
Patriots who love America should back that governor’s instinct: protect our borders and our workforce, demand accountability from elite institutions, and keep the door open to talent that strengthens our country rather than undermines it. If conservatives unite behind common?sense reforms rather than reflexive layoffs of policy, we’ll both keep America safe and keep our universities and industries competitive on the world stage. The choice is clear: principled realism, not wrecking the very institutions that make this nation great.
