WSJ What’s News - Trump’s Visa Changes Could Hurt U.S. Economy

Episode Date: September 22, 2025

A.M. Edition for Sept. 22. President Trump announced a move to dramatically reshape the U.S. immigration system, attaching hefty new fees to H-1B visas, arguing it would be a boon to American workers. But as WSJ business editor Alex Frangos explains, economists are not so sure. Plus, a slew of Western countries recognize a Palestinian state in a significant shift in foreign policy. And, does your barista seem a lot nicer? We know why! Caitlin McCabe hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This message comes from Viking, committed to exploring the world in comfort. Journey through the heart of Europe on an elegant Viking longship with thoughtful service, destination-focused dining, and cultural enrichment on board and on shore. And every Viking voyage is all-inclusive with no children and no casinos. Discover more at viking.com. The White House rolls out big changes to a popular visa program, leaving U.S. tech companies in a state of frantic confusion. Plus, a slew of Western countries recognize a Palestinian state in a significant shift in foreign policy. The cycle of violence must end.

A mask can play no role in a future Palestinian state. But Australia is also very clear that we want to see an end to the loss of innocent life, whether it be Israeli or Palestinians. And have you noticed your Starbucks brista acting especially friendly lately? It's not a coincidence. It's Monday, September 22nd. I'm Caitlin McCabe for the Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. We start today with big updates on the immigration front, with President Trump signing a proclamation that will add a $100,000 fee to visas for skilled foreign workers. The changes to so-called H-1B visas, which for more than three decades have allowed companies to bring four.

Foreign workers to the U.S. temporarily are set to deal a blow to U.S. white-collar industries. Tech companies, Amazon, Google, and Tesla are among the biggest users of the visas, with the workers overwhelmingly coming from India to fill software development, engineering, and other jobs. Michelle Hackman covers immigration policy for the journal, and she says the White House's announcement late Friday kicked off a weekend of chaos and confusion. They put out this order that made it look like any H-1B1B. visa holder that's currently outside of the country would be caught up in this and basically wouldn't be allowed back into the country unless they paid $100,000.

This set off a mad scramble across corporate America to try to locate every single one of these various companies, H-1B visa holders, make sure that they were in the country. And if they weren't in the country, make sure that they got back before the end of the weekend, before this order took effect. The Trump administration later clarified that the fee. only affects new visas. In addition to changes to the H-1B program, the White House announced it is also rolling out a gold card for those willing to pay $1 million to secure U.S. residency. It argues that the visa changes are a boon to Americans who have had their jobs replaced by foreign workers.

Here's business editor, Alex Frangos. When you look at the part of the employment matrix here where, which is much affected is, you know, in the computer programming and high-tech STEM space, this is not a part of the economy where there's a very high unemployment rate. Workers are very coveted. So you take some of those workers out of the mix. Certainly the wages are going to go up for the existing ones, but these are not workers who are in a part of the economy that's necessarily suffering. It's not like parts of the economy like manufacturing that have been hollowed out

where there's been tens of thousands of job losses. It's more people who are already probably earning a pretty good living will have even more leverage to earn even more. The changes to the H-1B visa program are likely to stoke more tension surrounding a U.S. immigration policy at a time when cities across the country are grappling with immigration rates. It's estimated that more than 220,000 people have been deported by U.S. immigration and customs enforcement since President Trump took office, a rate that is on track to outpace deportations under the Biden administration. But as congressional reporter Katie Stetch Farrak explains, some immigrants who have been detained recently are finding an unexpected lifeline in Republicans

on the Hill, some of whom have intervened to help free immigrants from federal custody. We found a handful of cases where Republicans worked behind the scenes with DHS to secure the release of people that they felt were either wrongly detained or had particularly sympathetic cases. This surprised me because Republicans on the Hill have been some of the loudest defenders of Trump's immigration policies. Katie added that the interventions underscore how some Republicans are grappling with the fallout from the administration's actions, even while falling in line to support the policy. The UK, France, Australia, and Canada are among a slew of countries now formally

recognizing a Palestinian state in a significant shift in foreign policy among Western governments. It follows growing dissatisfaction with Israel after nearly two years of war in Gaza, with UK Prime Minister Kirstarmer saying the move was needed to try to force an end to the conflict. This is a practical plan to bring people together behind a common vision and a series of steps, including the reform of the Palestinian Authority, that takes us from a ceasefire in Gaza to negotiations on a two-state solution. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sharply criticized the moves, saying they rewarded Hamas, who still holds dozens of Israeli hostages since its October 7th attacks. He also struck a defiant tone, vowing to block the establishment of a Palestinian state. Meanwhile, President Trump, cabinet officials, and right-wing pundits paid tribute to slain activist Charlie Kirk in a packed football stadium in Arizona yesterday,

with the memorial service stretching more than five hours. Among the most powerful moments was when Kirk's wife, Erica, fought back tears as she announced she had forgiven her husband's killer. My husband, Charlie, he wanted to save young men, just like the one who took her. his life. That man, I forgive him. Republican leaders appeared hopeful that the event might unify and fortify a conservative movement that in recent months has come under strain. Volunteers use the event to ask new voters to register as Republicans, while President

Trump, speaking on stage, called Kirk a, quote, great American hero. and martyr for freedom. And in a possible symbol of new unity, Elon Musk, who earlier this spring had a falling out with the president, sat down beside Trump and shook his hand. And in a flurry of social media posts over the weekend, President Trump all but ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute his political foes. Among the political rivals mentioned by Trump were New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI director James Comey. Trump's demands come after he ousted a Virginia prosecutor for not charging James and Comey, instead naming one of his personal lawyers as a new prosecutor to helms him of the investigations. The comments are the most explicit

demand to date that Bondi target his enemies, showing just how far he has gone and asserting control over the Justice Department's traditionally independent decision-making in criminal investigations. We should note that lawyers for James and Comey didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Coming up, we take a closer look at what an American TikTok app will look like, plus how Starbucks is using friendlier barista interactions and lots of eye contact to try to reverse a sales slump. Those stories and more after the break. As companies seek to close growing gaps in skills and talent, Deloitte U.S. CEO Jason Garzadis believes it's important for organizations to understand their baseline of skills.

There's so many organizations that can't ask and answer the fundamental questions about how much Computer science or data management skills do I have or AI development skills in a given domain. By performing a skills inventory, leaders can truly understand where their efforts should be focused. Being blind to those gaps is the real miss. Visit Deloitte.com to learn how your enterprise can help successfully cultivate talent. The future of TikTok in the U.S. is coming into focus. and users likely won't have to download a new app to access it. After months of negotiations between the Trump administration and China over the U.S. operations of the popular app,

the two sides have a preliminary deal. Crucially, this includes retraining TikTok's algorithm so that users will be able to access the service through their current app. As we reported last week, existing investors and a group of new U.S. backers would together own about 80% of the company. Yesterday, President Trump said the group might even include Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch as part of a small investment through Fox News parent, Fox Corp. Lockland Murdoch is chair of News Corp, which owns the Wall Street Journal, and is also executive chair and CEO of Fox Corp. A senior White House official says President Trump is expected to approve the framework

be an executive order later this week. And we are exclusively reporting that the owner of Saks Fifth Avenue is in talks to sell 49% of luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman for about $1 billion. There are at least four potential bidders for the store with a deal expected as early as next year. Sacks has in recent months overhauled its capital structure in order to fund its takeover of rival Neiman Marcus. And finally, the world's largest coffee chain, Starbucks, is mounting a new initiative to choreograph the way its barista's speak. So when you next go grab a coffee, you might here something like this. So they could say, thank you so much. Have a great day to thanks for being

part of our day. It means a lot to thanks the name of the customer. I always love seeing you in the store. That's the journal's Heather Haddon. She's been looking at Starbucks's new training material where staff are being coached to read customers' moods, to choose the right gestures, and even the correct tone of voice. Heather says the carefully scripted approach is the brainchild of chief executive Brian Nicol, who's hoping that a warm welcome can reverse the company's sales lump. So Starbucks has been struggling. They've had falling sales for a number of quarters now. And so Brian was charged to do something about it. And so this is what he's doing. And it is a big bet. They say it's one of the biggest investments in service at the company ever. They're

spending something like $500 million on all these various efforts, whether it's training or additional labor or just improving the store environments. So, yeah, it's a big bet for a company where the margins are down, but Brian believes, you know, with patience, this is going to work and putting all of his eggs in this basket. Nichols' overall vision is to create a space where people are encouraged to linger, marking a stark contrast to competitors who want to serve their customers quickly and at a lower price point. And that's it for What's News for this Monday morning. Today's show is produced by Kate Bullivant and Freddie Folston. Our supervising producer is Sandra Kilhoff. And I'm Caitlin McCabe for the Wall Street Journal.

We'll be back tonight with the new show. Until then, thanks for listening. Thank you. You can find the one today. Download the realtor.com app because you're nearly home. Make it real with Realtor.com. Pro's number one most trusted app based on August

2024 proprietary survey. Over 500,000 new listings every month based on average new for sale and rental listings. February 24th through January 2025.