Supporters of President-Elect Donald Trump have been waging a public battle in recent days over an immigration policy that many large Alabama companies use to draw skilled foreign workers.

The H-1B Visa program allows American employers to temporarily hire non-citizens for high-skill, specialty jobs. The visa can cover everything from Department of Defense researchers to fashion models. Employers are supposed to use it if they can’t find American citizens to do a job.

Amazon was the largest beneficiary of the program this fiscal year, with 3,871 new H-1B employees, according to the National Foundation for American Policy. Google, Meta, Apple and IBM were all among the top 10 employers.

According to Citizenship and Immigration Services, 273 Alabama companies have 1,129 H1-B positions approved.

What is H-1B and why is it controversial?

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says H-1B applicants must have at least a bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in the occupation they’re filling. Once someone gets a visa, they can get up to six years on the job.

According to The Washington Post, immigration officials issue 85,000 H-1B visas each year — 65,000 to first-time applicants and another 20,000 to those graduating with a master’s degree or doctorate from a U.S. college or university.

The controversy came following comments by high-profile Trump supporters, such as Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who say the visa program allows tech companies to gain necessary expertise from foreign workers. They were responding to Trump supporters such as Laura Loomer and Steve Bannon, who say the program allows companies to exploit foreign labor while denying Americans good paying jobs.

Trump himself told The New York Post he supports the program, though he has been critical of it and restricted foreign worker visas during the first term in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program,” he said. According to The New York Times, Trump spoke out against the program while campaigning in 2016, calling it “very bad for workers” and stating that “we should end it.”

The H1-B program is different than H2B visas, for unskilled labor, or H2A visas, for agricultural workers.

Alabama H-1B employers

The largest employer by far using workers under the H-1B visa program this year in Alabama is the University of Alabama at Birmingham. As of the end of September, UAB had 181 approved workers.

And according to myvisajobs.com, a clearinghouse for job openings and applicants, the school has 296 Labor Condition Applications filed. An LCA is a document that a prospective employer files with the U.S. Labor Department’s Employment and Training Administration when it seeks to employ non-immigrant workers at a specific job.

The average salary of those job offers at UAB is $110,678.

Auburn University has 76 visa beneficiaries approved, followed by Shipt with 63, and the University of Alabama Health Services Foundation with 60. The University of Alabama has 51, the same number as VT Mobile Aerospace Engineering.

Notably, Huntsville’s health care authority, which has 15 applications filed with the program, offers the highest average salary of every company in the top 10, with 15 positions averaging $282,120.