A rift has emerged among the supporters of US President-elect Donald Trump over the contentious issue of immigration. The faction spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy contrasts sharply with Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) base, which firmly endorses his stringent anti-immigration policies. At the centre of the heated debate that has been raging online over the last few days is Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-born entrepreneur chosen by Trump to be his adviser on artificial intelligence (AI). Krishnan favours getting more skilled immigrants into the US.
The matter escalated when Ramaswamy, appointed by Trump to reduce government spending, asserted that American culture is responsible for US companies opting to hire skilled foreign workers, often through H-1B temporary worker visas. “Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence,” Ramaswamy wrote on X. “A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian-the top student in a class, will not produce the best engineers.” Undoubtedly the prom queen is very attractive yet this post invited sharp reactions from Trump’s MAGA supporters who are against any sort of immigration. The backlash apparently subdued Ramaswamy who, subsequently, clarified his stand saying that “the H-1B system is badly broken & should be replaced.” But it was too late. Many MAGA supporters resorted to outright racist slurs and termed Indians as “invaders” stealing their jobs. It is pertinent to note here that persons of Indian origin (PIOs) in most white-collar jobs in the US compete directly with white Americans, unlike other immigrants who mostly get into low-paying blue-collar jobs. As a result of this, the unfortunate PIOs often find themselves at the receiving end of backlash from white Americans.
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The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that enables US companies to hire foreign workers for specialised roles that require advanced skills. Technology firms rely heavily on this visa to recruit tens of thousands of employees annually from countries such as India and China. The tech sector has consistently advocated for an increase in the H-1B visa quota to draw in the best-skilled talent to the US. However, during Trump’s first term in 2020, the programme faced restrictions, with the administration contending that it permits companies to substitute American workers with lower-paid foreign labour.
Musk, born in Pretoria, South Africa, is the world’s wealthiest man and a close ally of the President-elect. He vehemently supports H-1B visa and has vowed to “go to war” to defend the programme. Musk was once an H-1B visa holder himself and has advocated for the industry’s necessity to recruit international talent. “The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B,” Musk wrote on X (formerly Twitter), the social media platform he owns. He then added, “Take a big step back and F*** YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.” However, critics contend that these visas undermine opportunities for American citizens who could fill those positions. Some conservative voices have called for the programme to be abolished altogether.
Amid the simmering row, the President-elect seems to be aligning with Musk and other supporters in the tech industry over the immigration visa issue. In a Saturday interview with the New York Post, Trump expressed his approval of using visas to attract skilled foreign workers to the US. “I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favour of the visas. That’s why we have them,” he told the newspaper. However, Trump, known for his fickle nature, has in the past criticised the H-1B visas, calling them “very bad” and “unfair” for US workers. His stringent immigration policies, including a commitment to mass deportation, were pivotal to his successful presidential campaign. While he has concentrated on undocumented immigrants entering the US, he has also advocated for restrictions on legal immigration, such as family-based visas. During his 2024 presidential campaign, where immigration became a key issue, Trump stated that undocumented immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and vowed to execute the largest deportation operation in US history. However, in a notable shift from his typical alarmist stance on immigration, Trump stated in a podcast this year that he supports granting automatic green cards to foreign students who graduate from US colleges. These remarks coincided with the emergence of his growing relationship with figures in the tech industry, including Musk and Ramaswamy.
No matter what the outcome of this spat, the fact remains that America, the land of opportunities, has always been the land of immigrants. Those who claim to be “natives” of the country themselves have foreign roots. It is a meritocracy that has thrived in that country over the centuries and that has made America the world’s most powerful nation by attracting top talents in many fields from across the globe. However much people may claim that the next century belongs to China or some other country, fact is that all modern-day tech innovations and inventions have all been the products greatly attributable to the ‘American Dream’. That dream will keep the United States of America as the land of opportunities for a long time to come. That is what will attract the best brains from across the world to sail the oceans to reach the shores of America and create new ideas and innovations that the world will need to use.
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