Roving Periscope: A beneficiary himself, Elon Musk defends “skilled foreign immigrants”

Virendra Pandit

New Delhi: An H-1B visa beneficiary himself from South Africa, the world’s richest man Elon Musk, a staunch Donald Trump supporter, is now at loggerheads with other Republican Party leaders who are supporting the US president-designate’s plans to overhaul the immigration policy to Make America Great Again (MAGA).

With his support for inviting skilled professionals through the ongoing H-1B visa policy, Musk has reignited the debate on this program and called it “broken” which needs to be reformed thoroughly, the media reported on Tuesday.

Trump has entrusted Musk, along with Indian-American tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, to lead his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to clean up the US administration. Last week, Musk argued that skilled foreign workers were needed for tech companies like his own SpaceX and Tesla.

“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 H-1B,” Musk last week wrote on X.

After declaring a “war” to defend the H-1B visa program, the tech billionaire supported this policy Washington has followed so far to bring skilled foreign workers to the US. Musk also called for an urgent need for “major reform” in this program.

“Easily fixed by raising the minimum salary significantly and adding a yearly cost for maintaining the H-1B, making it materially more expensive to hire from overseas than domestically. I’ve been very clear that the program is broken and needs major reform,” Musk on Sunday said in a post on X (formerly Twitter), that he owns.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.

Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

The tech industry has long called for more H-1B visas to attract highly skilled workers to the US.

Musk, who was once on an H-1B visa and whose electric vehicle company Tesla has hired workers using the program, defended the tech industry’s need to hire foreign workers.

“Anyone – of any race, creed, or nationality – who came to America and worked like hell to contribute to this country will forever have my respect. America is the land of freedom and opportunity. Fight with every fiber of your being to keep it that way!” he wrote on X on December 28.

Musk’s statement also received backing from President-elect Donald Trump whose first administration (2016-21) restricted the program in 2020, arguing that it allows businesses to replace Americans with lower-paid foreign workers.

However, Trump recently said: “I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them.” Musk has been consistently posting on X in favor of the program.

“There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent. It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley,” Musk wrote on December 25 on X.

Several of Trump’s supporters and immigration hardliners have, however, been increasingly pushing for scrapping the H-1B visa program amid debate over immigration.

The debate sparked when Laura Loomer, a right-wing influencer, criticized Trump’s selection of Indian-American entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan as an adviser on artificial intelligence (AI) policy in his coming administration. Krishnan favors the ability to bring more skilled immigrants into the US.

Loomer declared the stance to be “not America First policy” and said the tech executives who have aligned themselves with Trump were doing so to enrich themselves.

The debate intensified when Ramaswamy criticized American culture for promoting mediocrity instead of focusing on academic excellence and success based on merit.

“Trump’s election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up. A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness,” Ramaswamy said on Thursday.

He also faced backlash for the comment.

In response, Musk called for removing “contemptible fools” from the Republican Party who oppose his immigration agenda.

Musk later clarified that his statement was addressing the “hateful, unrepentant racists” he considers a threat to the Republican Party’s future.