‘Crony capitalism’: John Curley calls out Trump’s ‘horrible’ $100K H-1B visa fee
Sep 24, 2025, 5:37 PM
The Trump administration increased H-1B visa fees to $100,000, and although it doesn’t apply to existing visa holders, some companies are still recommending employees hold off on traveling, The Associated Press reported Monday.
KIRO host John Curley called the move “a horrible idea.”
“The $100,000 to Microsoft, or some of the other big tech companies, is like to us a cup of coffee. They make billions and billions of dollars. So for them to bring somebody in for $100,000—nothing to them. But if you’re a small tech startup in Austin, do you think you can afford $100,000 to have somebody come in from India, or some other country, to do the work? Absolutely not,” Curley said on “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio.
He emphasized that bigger companies will dominate, shutting out smaller ones.
“This thing is crony capitalism all the way through, and this happens with Democrats and Republicans,” Curley said. “And this is just a bad, bad idea, because now you’re going to make it that much harder for the small guy to compete against the big guy, and the big guy is going to easily be able to write as many checks as they want for $100,000.”
Watch the full discussion in the video above.
Listen to John Curley weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.
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