Billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy can advise newly-elected President Donald Trump on this cuts in federal spending but they also have some advice for him on the American workforce, urging his next administration to bring in more foreign tech workers.
Musk and Ramaswamy’s positions have sparked an online feud between factions of Trump’s supporters over immigration and the tech industry, whose companies rely on the H-1B visa to bring thousands of foreign engineers and other skilled workers from India every year. to bring in China and other countries. .
The tech industry has long called for more H-1B visas to attract highly skilled workers to the US, although the first Trump administration limited the program in 2020, arguing that this allows companies to replace Americans with lower-paid foreign workers.
That debate has reignited after Musk, himself once on an H-1B visa and whose electric car company Tesla hired workers using the program, defended the tech industry’s need to bring in foreign workers. For his part, Ramaswamy wrote in an
“There is a permanent shortage of excellent technical talent. It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley,” Musk wrote on December 25 on X, his social media app.
Here’s what you need to know about the debate and the H-1B visa.
How did the most recent H-1B debate begin?
The debate started this week when Laura Loomer, a right-wing influencer with a history of racist and conspiratorial comments, criticized Trump’s choice of Sriram Krishnan as an artificial intelligence advisor in his incoming administration. Krishnan favors the ability to bring more skilled immigrants to the US
Loomer stated that this position was “not an America First policy” and said that the technology executives who aligned themselves with Trump did so to enrich themselves.
Loomer’s comments led to a conversation with venture capitalist and former PayPal executive David Sacks, who Trump has designated as the “White House AI & Crypto Czar.” Musk and Ramaswamy, who Trump has tasked with finding ways to cut federal government spending, defended the tech industry’s need to bring in foreign workers.
It turned into a larger debate, with more and more far-right figures voicing their opinions on the need to hire American workers, whether values in American culture can produce the best engineers, freedom of expression on the Internet, the new influence that tech figures have in Trump’s world and what his political movement stands for.
Who is eligible for an H-1B visa?
US Citizenship and Immigration Services says the H-1B visa is aimed at professionals who have a “theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge,” and who have a bachelor’s degree or higher in their field.
Those professionals must also have been offered a temporary job by a U.S. company, which must offer a wage that is not less than the wage paid to similarly qualified workers or less than the prevailing wage for the job in the geographic area where that person will go work.
How many workers receive H-1B visas?
The U.S. limits the number of H-1B visas to 65,000 new visas per year, although another 20,000 can be granted to people with a master’s degree or higher, USCIS says. The visa is valid for three years, but can then be extended for another three years.
However, the U.S. approves extensions every year for people already working on H-1B visas, with a 2023 report noting that the agency has greenlit more than 309,000 requests for continued employment under the visa program.
What countries do H-1B recipients come from?
More than 7 in 10 recipients of H-1B visas come from India, followed by China, with more than 1 in 10 recipients. The rest of the H-1B visa holders come from a wide range of countries, including Canada, Korea, the Philippines, Mexico and Taiwan, according to a USCIS report.
What is the debate over H-1B visas?
Technology companies say H-1B visas for skilled workers, used by software engineers and others in the tech industry, are critical for hard-to-fill positions.
But critics have said they undermine American citizens who could take on these jobs. Some on the right have called for the program to be abolished and not expanded.
Some studies, including a 2017 study report CBS’ “60 Minutes” has revealed that while many companies are using the program as intended, some have abused the visa program to replace American workers with cheaper temporary foreign labor.
What does Donald Trump say about H-1B visas?
Trump has not yet spoken out on the rift, and his presidential transition team did not respond to a message seeking comment.
But Trump’s positions over the years reflect the divisions in his movement. His tough immigration policies, including his pledge for mass deportations, were central to his winning presidential campaign.
He has focused on immigrants entering the U.S. illegally, but he has also sought restrictions on legal immigration, including family visas.
As a presidential candidate, Trump in 2016 called the H-1B visa program “very bad” and “unfair” for American workers. After becoming president, Trump issued a “Buy American and Hire American” executive order in 2017, directing Cabinet members to propose changes to ensure that H-1B visas were awarded to the highest-paid or most skilled applicants to Protect American workers.
In 2020, the Trump administration required employers to pay H-1B holders higher wages, a move they said would discourage U.S. companies from turning to cheaper labor from abroad.
contributed to this report.