A protracted hot-button IT issue over H-1B visas is roiling the incoming Trump administration, pitting the President-elect and sidekick Elon Musk against the MAGA world — leaving the IT community stuck somewhere in the middle.
On Saturday, Donald Trump broke his silence in recent days to tell the New York Post he has “always liked the visas,” which lets businesses hire highly skilled workers from foreign countries.
“I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them,” Trump told the Post. “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.”
Trump’s comments marked a reversal of sorts from his first administration (2017-2021), when he signed an executive order that tightened access to such visas and called the program “very bad” for Americans. But his position has shifted in part because of Musk, the leader of Tesla Inc., SpaceX and X, who has stressed the importance of H-1B visas and vowed to go to “war” on the issue.
Late Saturday, Musk floated a potential solution. “Easily fixed by raising the minimum salary significantly and adding a yearly cost for maintaining the H1B, making it materially more expensive to hire from overseas than domestically,” Musk wrote on X.
“I’ve been very clear that the program is broken and needs major reform,” Musk added. “I’m confident that the changes made in the @realDonaldTrump administration will make America much stronger.”
A conga line of Big Tech CEOs, including Apple Inc.’s Tim Cook, Meta Platforms Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Alphabet Inc.’s Sundar Pichai, have met with Trump the past few weeks to burnish their relationships with him as he threatens to escalate a trade war with China. An ongoing shortage of tech workers has bedeviled the industry in recent years, as well as a slew of antitrust actions by the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice under President Joe Biden.
Immigration hard-liners such as Stephen K. Bannon and Laura Loomer, meanwhile, have strongly advocated an “America First” agenda focused on creating more jobs for U.S. citizens and imposing tougher restrictions on immigration at all levels.
“Looks like Elon Musk is going to be silencing me for supporting original Trump immigration policies,” Loomer wrote on X, after his blue check mark was removed on the social media platform. “I have always been America First and a die hard supporter of President Trump and I believe that promises made should be promises kept. Donald Trump promised to remove the H1B visa program and I support his policy. Now, as one of Trump’s biggest supporters, I’m having my free speech silenced by a tech billionaire for simply questioning the tech oligarchy.”
Bannon, who once served as Trump’s chief strategist, called Musk “a toddler” on the social media platform Gettr.
Indeed, the debate over H-1B could be a flashpoint within the incoming administration over Big Tech and its vast influence on the global economy and culture. Debate rages on whether the administration will treat Silicon Valley and beyond. Recent nominees to Team Trump have offered conflicting views in both opposing (repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, antitrust investigations) and supporting (deregulation, billion-dollar defense contracts) the tech industry.
