Billionaire Elon Musk and billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, the two co-heads of the Department of Government Performance (DOGE) in the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, have sparked debate in the MAGA community about how the program will be implemented. The H-1B program is applied in the anti-immigrant agenda when Mr. Trump returns to the White House on January 20, 2025. In particular, H-1B is a visa issued to foreign workers with high expertise in a number of occupations, mainly in the technology field.
The source of the latest H-1B controversy
Last week, Ms. Laura Loomer, a supporter of Mr. Trump’s election campaign, criticized venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan, an immigrant from India, being chosen as an artificial intelligence (AI) policy advisor. in the next administration, according to The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Krishnan is in favor of granting green cards to skilled workers under the H-1B category. “We need the best people, no matter where they were born,” Mr. Krishnan wrote on X (former name Twitter) in November.
From left to right: Billionaire Elon Musk, President-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy
After Mr. Trump on December 22 selected Mr. Krishnan as an AI advisor, Ms. Loomer reiterated Mr. Krishnan’s support for recruiting highly skilled foreign workers. According to her, this is a viewpoint that is outside the “America First” policy, and also accused technology directors of scheming to enrich themselves. Ms. Loomer’s tweet sparked an online argument with venture capitalist and former PayPal executive David Sacks, who was in charge of the White House’s AI and cryptocurrency advisory position when Mr. Trump took office.
Then, it was billionaire Musk and billionaire Ramaswamy’s turn to advocate for the need for the technology industry to recruit highly skilled immigrant workers to continue maintaining its leading role in the world. In an article on Skilled sports has to do with recruiting the best talent globally.
The next day (December 26), billionaire Ramaswamy, whose parents are immigrants from India, voiced his agreement with Mr. Musk while defending companies looking for workers outside the United States. According to him, the tendency for technology companies to hire foreign engineers or children of American immigrants is because “American culture has for too long worshiped mediocrity rather than excellence.” “A culture that worships prom queens more than math champions, or honors athletes more than valedictorians, will not produce the best engineers,” according to Mr. Ramaswamy.
Mr. Trump’s view
At this time, former congressman Matt Gaetz, who was nominated by Mr. Trump to be attorney general before withdrawing due to investigation, joined the “war” by posting a tweet mocking the Musk-Ramaswamy duo, according to CNN. . Mr. Gaetz said that Mr. Trump’s upcoming administration does not need people like the two billionaires from immigrants to “build US immigration policy”. Former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley also spoke up to affirm that the government needs to invest and prioritize American people, not foreign workers.
Meanwhile, the views of billionaire Musk and billionaire Ramaswamy receive support from some Democratic Party figures. Commenting to CNN, Colorado Governor Jared Polis welcomed their recognition of the value of high-skilled immigration, while hoping that the role of low-skilled immigrants also needs to be properly recognized.
The H-1B visa program annually allows 65,000 highly skilled workers to immigrate to the United States. Initially, Mr. Trump in 2016 opposed this program, arguing that technology companies wanted to replace American workers with foreign workers at lower costs. In 2020, Mr. Trump during his first term in the White House many times restricted H-1B visas for reasons related to the Covid-19 Pandemic.
However, most recently in June, Mr. Trump said he wanted to grant permanent residency to any foreign citizen who graduated from college in the US. Currently, the elected president has not yet commented on the “civil war” that is breaking out between the tech faction and the MAGA faction.
Mr. Trump wants to take control of the TikTok case
Yesterday (Vietnam time), President-elect Donald Trump asked the US Supreme Court to stop enforcing the law banning the Chinese social networking application TikTok if parent company ByteDance does not transfer ownership to Americans in January 19, 2025. The reason given by Mr. Trump’s side is that the president-elect after taking office on January 20, 2025 needs more time to pursue a “political solution” to this problem, according to Reuters. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the case on January 10. After sending his opinion to the Supreme Court, Mr. Trump spoke with TikTok General Director Shou Zi Chew. It is unclear the content of the conversation between the two people.
