President-elect Donald Trump spoke favorably of H-1B visas for highly skilled workers in an interview with The New York Post on Dec. 28, appearing to align himself with Elon Musk in the ongoing heated debate over the issue.
“I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them,” Trump told the outlet in a telephone interview. “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.”
The H-1B visa program allows up to 65,000 highly skilled foreign workers annually, plus 20,000 foreigners who obtained an advanced degree from a U.S. institution, to fill specialized roles in the U.S. workforce.
Musk, a former foreign student, initially gained U.S. work status through an H-1B visa and recently defended the program for helping drive innovation and economic growth in the United States. Critics have argued the program undermines domestic job opportunities and lowers wages.
In his first term, Trump implemented restrictions on foreign worker visas and expressed criticism of the program. However, his 2024 campaign hinted at a potential shift, indicating openness to granting H-1B visas, or even green cards, to foreign-born graduates of U.S. universities.
Trump’s remarks to The Post were made a day after Musk vowed to go to “war” in defense of the H-1B visa program in response to critics calling for the visas to be eliminated.
“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,” Musk said in a Dec. 27 post on social media platform X, in response to a comment suggesting that the H-1B program should be “optimized” out of existence.
Earlier, Musk said in a Dec. 25 post that the United States needed to double its number of engineers, citing a shortage of “super talented” and “super motivated” individuals. While he expressed preference for hiring Americans, Musk stressed the importance of legal immigration for attracting the top 0.1 percent of engineering talent.
While Musk has argued that U.S. immigration policies should prioritize attracting top global talent, critics contend that the program often displaces domestic workers and drives down wages.
Musk’s endorsement of the visas has triggered heated debate online, as well as some opposition from factions within Trump’s political base and from conservatives more broadly.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, proposed reforms to the H-1B visa program that align tech industry interests with immigration restrictionists. In a recent op-ed, he advocated prioritizing higher-salaried, highly skilled workers to attract top talent while limiting overall visa numbers, addressing a key concern of Trump voters.
Krikorian suggested replacing the visa lottery and certain “chain-migration” categories with a merit-based system, reallocating visas to skilled workers on the basis of factors like education level and existing job offers. This approach, he argued, would increase skilled immigration while reducing overall immigration levels.
Countries like Canada and Australia use merit-based points systems of the type Krikorian has suggested. While there have been legislative efforts in the United States to adopt a merit-based system for guest worker visas, none have succeeded.
The H-1B visa is both good and bad. Many highly qualified Americans with a great work ethics, have trained people who came here on H-1B visas, and then these Americans are fired. Then these companies work these H-1B holders’ long hours at low wages. These corrupt companies then line their own pockets with higher profits. I worked with a girl from India and she invited me to some of her parties. Some of their friends were here on H-1B visas and these companies worked these people very long hours. These people were telling me they were working 18 to 20 hours a day! On the other hand, many Americans are taking gender studies / DEI studies at our university communist indoctrination centers and these clowns, who look at their phones all day long, do not deserve jobs. In essence we need the best of the best in our Country, via the H-1B visa system, but in a limited amount of people and only those that are loyal to the United States. Secondly, those company executives that replace excellent American workers with H1B visa holders and those companies that are working people 18 to 20 hours a day and paying them lower wages, should be sent to prison and not a “white collar” prison.
backpacker: Highly trained people do not work 18-20 hours at low pay. They simply go to another company.
Only sweatshops work their illegal immigrants like that.
sweatshop:
a factory or workshop, especially in the clothing industry, where manual workers are employed at very low wages for long hours and under poor conditions. “the situation is similar to migrant workers in sweatshops”
Scruffy, like I stated above, I worked with a girl from India. Some of her friends from India on H-1B visas were working 18-20 hours a day in IT. They personally told me this. Plus, they were working at lower wages than the Americans who were let go. Not all of these companies and the CEOS that run these companies have high moral values. All they care about is the bottom line, namely profits!!
When you work for a big company and your salary and seniority gets too high, as soon as the economy dips, the SOBs look for any ways to lower costs. The crime is forcing Legal Americans to train their lower wage replacements before getting kicked out the door, often right before qualifying for a company retirement. When the foreign born get to the same high levels they also will be weaseled out of the company that like the political party social collectives must survive, while the individuals are just pawns to be sacrificed so the queens and kings can survive untouched on the fixed chessboard of life.
My big issue with these visas, is WE SHOULD BE taking our own citizens first, THEN and only then if there are none, should we be ‘outsourcing’ them…
“In his first term, Trump implemented restrictions on foreign worker visas and expressed criticism of the program.”,,,,which goes to prove Trump should always go with his first initial instincts. H1-B has been a major cause of our military and industrial technology mysteriously reappearing in the countries that have sworn to destroy us. Personally I have seen it as a major liberal tool to repress white Anglo Saxon Wasp type native born Americans in favor of elevating women and foreigners. I would remind Trump these people are a major portion of THE PEOPLE who voted him into power to make America Great Again, not foreign-born aliens, legal or otherwise who were raised to hate and be jealous of our previous European based superior technology and economic power. Trump should read his Churchill- Quote;
“Mohammedanism (As well as secular socialism/communism) is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.” – or the USA.
SO has foreign student visas… AS those countries hating us get them, and go to ‘school’ in colleges where various govt projects are being worked on!
Musk is the president, not Trump. The people elected Trump. but Musk is the voice Vance will never have…ijs
Musk is NOT the president. TRUMP is.