December 29th 2024.
In a recent interview with the New York Post, President-elect Donald Trump expressed his support for the H-1B visa program, putting an end to the debate between his advisors Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy and the right-wing fringe who opposed it. "It's a great program," he said, adding, "I've always liked the visas and have always been in favor of them. That's why we have them." Trump also mentioned that he has used the program multiple times on his own properties.
Trump has long been an advocate for reforming the immigration system to make it more merit-based, similar to Canada and Australia's points system, which takes into account educational and professional qualifications. He has also stated his desire to provide green cards to foreign students who graduate from US universities. This idea was reiterated during his campaign, with Trump stating, "You graduate from college, you should automatically, as part of your diploma, get a green card to stay in this country."
The debate over H-1B visas and the immigration of highly qualified individuals became heated when Trump appointed Sriram Krishnan, an Indian immigrant, as his artificial intelligence advisor. Laura Loomer, a far-right Trump supporter, was one of the first to voice her opposition to Krishnan's appointment, accusing him of wanting to remove all restrictions on green cards. However, David Sacks, the Crypto and AI Czar appointed by Trump, clarified that Krishnan had only suggested removing the limits on green cards given to individual countries, while still maintaining an overall limit to distribute unused green cards to those with long backlogs.
As the attacks and false accusations against Krishnan continued, Sacks came to his defense, stating that "the lies just shifted, including to some nasty attacks" on him. Elon Musk also spoke out in support of Krishnan, stating on his platform X, "The reason I'm in America, along with many others who have built successful companies like SpaceX and Tesla, is because of H-1B." He warned that without attracting the world's best talent, the US would "LOSE."
Ramaswamy, another supporter of bringing talented immigrants to the US, argued that the culture of mediocrity in America is the reason why US corporations often look elsewhere for talent. "Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for too long," he wrote on his platform X. He also pointed out factors such as the glorification of sports and entertainment figures over science and tech achievers, and the discrimination faced by studious students.
As the debate became more heated and attacks on H-1B visa holders and merit-based green card recipients increased, Musk took a strong stance, threatening a critic with an obscenity-laden post, stating, "I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend." It's worth noting that Indians received the largest number of H-1B visas last year, making up 72.3% of the recipients.
While the opposition to Indians coming on H-1B visas and as immigrants has been mostly from the right-wing, there has also been opposition from the left in the Democratic Party, with claims that they depress wages for US-born citizens and take away their jobs. However, with Trump's support for the H-1B visa program, it seems that the debate has finally come to an end. Only time will tell what changes will be made to the immigration system under the new administration.
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