‘This isn't just about ending H-1Bs...’: Steve Bannon calls for 10-year immigration freeze, claims asylum system is 'too corrupt'

Former Trump advisor and MAGA bigwig Steve Bannon has called for a complete halt to immigration into the United States for a decade, arguing that the system is too corrupt to be fixed through limited reforms.

Speaking on his War Room show, Bannon said the proposal goes far beyond ending the H-1B visa programme. “So this is why we're calling for a 10-year moratorium, no immigration,” he said.





The Republican added: “These immigration and refugee programs and amnesty programs and asylum programs are so corrupt. Now it's in your face. You can't go through onesies twosies… Not just getting rid of H1B visas, but moratoriums across the board. [A] decade, until we get this mess sorted out.”

Bannon claimed that there was too much fraud and abuse across immigration and refugee systems. He pointed to high-profile welfare and aid fraud cases, including those uncovered in Minnesota, as proof that the system is being exploited by organised networks at the expense of taxpayers. According to Bannon, these cases show that partial fixes will not work and that a full shutdown is needed to rebuild the system from scratch.

A major focus of his criticism was legal immigration, particularly the H-1B visa programme used by technology and engineering firms. Bannon has repeatedly described the programme as a tool used by large corporations to suppress wages and replace American workers with cheaper foreign labour. In earlier podcasts, he called it “a total and complete scam to destroy the American worker” and accused Silicon Valley companies of importing “indentured servants”.

He has also taken aim at foreign students who remain in the US after graduation. “I don’t think you should have any foreign students in the country right now. No H-1B visas,” Bannon said in an earlier episode this year. “Instead of stapling a green card to their diploma, staple an exit visa. You get 30 days… then leave.”

Bannon claims that keeping foreign graduates in the US harms their home countries. “The countries of the world won’t get better if you’re sucking up every piece of talent,” he said.

His views align closely with the hardline wing of the Republican Party. Vice President JD Vance has also criticised tech companies for laying off US workers while continuing to apply for foreign visas.