President-elect Donald Trump reportedly said Saturday that he supports the H-1B visa program, siding with Elon Musk in a dispute that has divided Trump globally as some of his far-right allies attacked the program as an extension of its anti-immigration policy. position.
Trump told The New York Post he has “always been in favor of the visas,” which allow U.S. employers to hire foreign workers on a short-term basis for jobs that require “highly specialized knowledge” and are frequently used by the tech industry.
Trump reportedly had “a lot of H-1B visas” at his properties, calling it a “great program. “
Trump spoke about the factor amid a growing divide among his allies that was sparked when Trump announced on Sunday that he had hired venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan as his senior policy adviser for synthetic intelligence. Krishanan has advocated getting rid of limits on green and professional cards. immigration programs.
The clash morphed into a broader debate about the culture, race and immigration of the American workforce and escalated Friday and Saturday, with Musk doubling down on his defense of the program, writing about despicable fools who will have to be removed from the Republican Party, at the root. and rama”. rod” in reaction to a post by right-wing commentator Scott Adams that “MAGA is taking cues from Democrats on how to lose election and still feel smart about yourself. “
Musk later clarified that he was referring to “those in the Republican Party who are hateful, unrepentant racists. “
Trump ally Steve Bannon also dedicated two of his “War Room” podcasts released Saturday to the issue, blasting the H-1B program and Silicon Valley and calling the visa program “an economic and financial scam” with “a dark underpinning of hatred of American citizens and our beloved Republic.”
Bannon said he has “full respect” for Musk, but challenged him to back up his claims that his companies rely on H1B visas by releasing data on “every engineer hired in H1B and that it turns out that Americans can’t fill those roles. “
“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, who was born in South Africa, wrote Saturday on X. “Take a big step back and F—K YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.”
Trump has not been as supportive of H-1B visas as he claimed to the New York Post. During his 2016 campaign, he called the program “very bad” and “unfair” to U. S. personnel and greater restrictions on H-1B programs as president. The Biden administration earlier this month issued a new rule aimed at making the program more available to employers by simplifying the application procedure and giving employers more leeway to determine eligibility.
In addition to Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy and venture capitalist David Sacks also defended Krishnan and the H-1B program against attacks from far-right Trump supporter Laura Loomer. He called Krishnan’s hiring “deeply troubling” and said that “allowing executives from primary technology corporations into Mar-A-Lago would be the death of our country. ” Isn’t it? Trump sided with Musk on Saturday as the two deepened their alliance. Politicians and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have noted what they say is Musk’s growing influence over the new Trump administration, prompting some of Trump’s critics to attack him by suggesting that Musk is some kind of shadow president. Earlier this month, Musk killed the Republican administration’s initial spending plan when he criticized the bill in a series of tweets, prompting Trump to echo Musk’s considerations hours later and send Republicans back to the drawing board. Trump hired Musk and Ramaswamy to run a new Department of Government Effectiveness, and Musk was the biggest donor of the 2024 election cycle, donating more than $250 million to help Trump, who rejected Trump’s jabs. “President Musk. ”
In addition to tech companies using H-1Bs to hire engineers and other similar jobs, the program is used across a broad array of industries, including architecture, medicine, education, business, law, theology and the arts. The U.S. issues 65,000 of the visas every year, plus 20,000 more to workers who have masters degrees or higher from a U.S. university. More than 700,000 people held H-1B visas in 2023, according to the American Immigration Council. They are valid for three years and can be extended for up to six.
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