Donald Trump on Saturday sided with Elon Musk, a key supporter and billionaire tech CEO, in a public dispute over using the H-1B visa, saying he absolutely backs this system for overseas tech employees opposed by a few of his supporters.
Trump’s remarks adopted a collection of social media posts from Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who vowed late Friday to go to “struggle” to defend the visa program for overseas tech employees.
Trump, who moved to restrict the visa’s use throughout his first presidency, advised the New York Publish on Saturday he was likewise in favor of the visa program.
“I’ve many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I’ve used it many instances. It’s an amazing program,” he was quoted as saying.
Musk, a naturalized US citizen born in South Africa, has held an H-1B visa, and his electric-car firm Tesla obtained 724 of the visas this yr. H-1B visas are sometimes for three-year durations, although holders can prolong them or apply for inexperienced playing cards.
The altercation was set off earlier this week by far-right activists who criticized Trump’s choice of Sriram Krishnan, an Indian American enterprise capitalist, to be an adviser on synthetic intelligence, saying he would have affect on the Trump administration’s immigration insurance policies.
Musk’s tweet was directed at Trump’s supporters and immigration hard-liners who’ve more and more pushed for the H-1B visa program to be scrapped amid a heated debate over immigration and the place of expert immigrants and overseas employees introduced into the nation on work visas.
On Friday, Steve Bannon, a longtime Trump confidante, critiqued “huge tech oligarchs” for supporting the H-1B program and solid immigration as a menace to western civilization.
In response, Musk and plenty of different tech billionaires drew a line between what they view as authorized immigration and unlawful immigration.
Trump has promised to deport all immigrants who’re within the US illegally, deploy tariffs to assist create extra jobs for Americans and severely limit immigration.
The visa concern highlights how tech leaders like Musk – who has taken an essential function within the presidential transition, advising on key personnel and coverage areas – at the moment are drawing scrutiny from his base.
The US tech trade depends on the federal government’s H-1B visa program to rent overseas expert employees to assist run its corporations, a labor drive that critics say undercuts wages for Americans.
Musk spent greater than 1 / 4 of a billion {dollars} serving to Trump get elected in November. He has posted often this week in regards to the lack of homegrown expertise to fill all of the wanted positions inside American tech corporations.
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