Top names in MAGAworld, including President-elect Donald Trump, are up in arms over an immigration protocol known as the H-1B visa that allows 85,000 foreigners to enter the United States to work each year.
Trump, who decried this particular visa in 2016 as “substituting” Americans with “cheap labor,” said over the weekend that he supported the H-1B visa program, claiming that he had many of these types of workers on his properties.
Incoming Department on Government Efficiency co-Chairman Vivek Ramaswamy, a technology businessman and co-Chairman billionaire businessman Elon Musk, a former H-1B visa holder himself, have backed Trump and subsequently been blamed by some for pushing Trump further to the center on the issue.
The debate has put the Republican Party on a collision course as it mulls immigration reform and border security funding in the early part of 2025, possibly triggering a “civil war” within the party until it can align its messaging on the visa issue.
What is the H-1B visa?
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a federal agency within the Department of Homeland Security, oversees dozens of types of visas available to foreigners, including nonimmigrant and immigrant visas.
The first is for temporary stays, including for tourism, business, family visits, school, and work. The latter, immigrant visas, are for permanent residents.
The H-1B visa allows foreign workers with a bachelor’s degree or equivalent to work in the country for three years and can be extended for an additional three years.
The visa is meant to be reserved for job positions that are specialty occupations and the employer is required to file a petition with USCIS that it cannot fill the role with an American worker.
Historically, the visas have largely gone to workers in information technology and computer sciences, systems analysts, engineers, university professors, and healthcare workers. Corporations Amazon, Google, Meta, Apple, and IBM ranked in the top 10 of employers who hired H-1B visa recipients.
H-1B visa recipients must be paid at least $60,000 compared to the 2023 median U.S. household income of $80,600, according to Census Bureau data.
USCIS makes 20,000 of these visas available to recent U.S. master’s degree or doctorate graduates and an additional 65,000 to workers overseas seeking admission.
The H-1B and the H-1A visa, issued for hiring nurses, were born in 1990 out of the Immigration Act.
Trump’s record on the H-1B visa
At the onset of the 2016 presidential election, Republican lawmakers were already speaking out against the H-1B visa. Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) had introduced a bill to impose expansive restrictions on the employment of H-1B recipients.
Former Sen. Jeff Sessions, who became Trump’s first attorney general, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), a former H-1B enthusiast, debuted the American Jobs First Act of 2015, which served as a blueprint for what the Trump administration would attempt in office come 2017.
The bill would have required applicants to work outside the U.S. for 10 years before applying. That would have barred 90% of recipients from the program, according to Forbes.
Several months into the pandemic in 2020, Trump signed an executive order that denied admission to H-1B visa holders outside of the food supply network.
Today’s feud in MAGAworld
The sudden debate over the H-1B visa program erupted last week when Laura Loomer, a right-wing activist who has gained notoriety among the Make America Great Again movement, called out Trump’s selection of an Indian-born tech entrepreneur, Sriram Krishnan, as White House senior policy adviser on artificial intelligence.
Loomer declared that Krishnan’s appointment was a bad idea because he opposed what Trump stood for regarding protocols for visas.
Deeply disturbing to see the appointment of Sriram Krishnan @sriramk as Senior Policy Advisor for AI at the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) December 23, 2024
It’s alarming to see the number of career leftists who are now being appointed to serve in Trump’s admin when they share views… https://t.co/pf0WiViy32 pic.twitter.com/nR0TkZpNK7
Within hours, Musk, the owner of X, rescinded her paid-for verification check mark. In a series of reaction posts, Loomer took to X to complain that Musk was not truly embodying the “free speech” that he claimed to champion on his platform.
Loomer claimed the issue would lead to a “civil war” within the MAGA movement. Musk went after Loomer in his own personal “war.”
“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,” Tesla and SpaceX owner Musk posted to X last Friday. “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.”
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.
— Kekius Maximus (@elonmusk) December 28, 2024
Take a big step back and FUCK YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot…
Loomer has won support from Trump’s former confidante, Steve Bannon, but has not seen any response from Trump’s incoming and previous White House senior adviser, Stephen Miller.
Trump and others jump in
On Saturday, Trump broke his silence and told the New York Post that he had never wavered from the H-1B visa despite his previous statement.
“I’ve always liked the visas,” Trump said. “I have always been in favor of the visas. I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program.”
In the days since, Republicans and Democrats have weighed in with their opinions on the visa program — some backing Trump’s new view and others backing his old view against the program.
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) said this week that the country needed to deal with the “reality” of its future, making an argument to fix the nation’s “broken” immigration system.
In a rare moment of agreement, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) came out in support of Trump, Musk, and Ramaswamy.
“One of the points I think Elon and others are making is [that] what makes America exceptional is that we are a magnet for the world’s talent,” Khanna said on Fox News Sunday. “It’s great that Elon Musk comes here. It’s great that Jensen [Huang], who started Nvidia, is doing it here and not Taiwan. We made a mistake when we lost Maurice Chang, who was an immigrant here, educated at MIT. He leaves the United States, and guess what — starts Taiwan Semiconductors, and now we don’t have semiconductors in the United States.”
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Still, plenty of Republicans were up in arms over the idea of continuing and expanding the H-1B visa program.
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) said the program’s reliance on educated foreign workers was “undercutting” U.S. citizens’ wages.