President-elect Donald Trump has sided with his top supporter and billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk in a public dispute over the use of the H-1B visa, saying he fully supports the foreign tech worker program that some of them oppose. his supporters.
Trump’s remarks followed a series of social media posts by Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who vowed late Friday to go to “war” to defend the visa program for foreign tech workers.
Trump, who moved to limit the use of visas during his first presidency, told the New York Post on Saturday that he, too, was in favor of the visa program.
“I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I have believed in the H-1B. I have used it many times. “It’s a great program,” he said.
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Musk, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in South Africa, has been an H-1B visa holder, with his electric car company Tesla securing 724 of the visas this year. H-1B visas usually have a duration of three years, although their holders can extend them or apply for a residence card.
The altercation was sparked earlier this week by far-right activists who criticized Trump’s selection of Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-American venture capitalist, to be an advisor on artificial intelligence, saying he would have influence on the company’s immigration policies. Trump administration.
Musk’s tweet was directed at Trump supporters and immigration hardliners, who have increasingly pushed for the elimination of the H-1B visa program amid a heated debate over immigration and the place occupied by qualified immigrants and foreign workers brought to the country on work visas.
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On Friday, Steve Bannon, a longtime Trump confidant, criticized the “big tech oligarchs” for supporting the H-1B program and called immigration a threat to Western civilization.
In response, Musk and many other tech billionaires drew a line between what they consider legal immigration and illegal immigration.
Trump has promised to deport all immigrants found in the United States illegally, deploy tariffs to help create more jobs for American citizens and severely restrict immigration.
The visa issue highlights how tech leaders like Musk – who has played a major role in the presidential transition, advising on key personnel and policy areas – are now coming under scrutiny from his base.
The U.S. tech industry relies on the government’s H-1B visa program to hire skilled foreign workers to help run its companies, a workforce that critics say drives down the wages of U.S. citizens.
Musk has spent more than $250 million helping Trump get elected in November. This week he has regularly published articles about the lack of domestic talent to fill all the necessary positions in American technology companies.
With information from Reuters
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