Portside

A Trump World civil war has erupted over visas for highly skilled workers, with the president-elect’s new tech industry allies like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy on one side and the anti-immigration MAGA base on the other.

The clash is a preview of the challenges in holding the Trump coalition together as his administration executes his immigration policy, an issue that drove his 2024 victory.

But while President-elect Trump has promised to shut down illegal immigration at the southern border and start a mass deportation effort, the latest debate concerns immigrants here legally — exposing a larger, sometimes racist, anti-immigrant sentiment on the right.

The debate was sparked by Trump on Sunday when he announced he was appointing Sriram Krishnan to be a White House policy adviser on artificial intelligence. Krishnan quickly came under fire for a November post suggesting immigration changes: “Anything to remove country caps for green cards / unlock skilled immigration would be huge.”

Far-right provocateur Laura Loomer called the comments “alarming,” accusing Krishnan of supporting foreigners being able to “come to the US and take jobs that should be given to American STEM students.”

The bulk of the discussion began to center on the H-1B visa program, an employer-sponsored visa intended for high-skilled professionals that is used mostly for computer-related and tech jobs. Congress has capped that program at 65,000 per year plus an additional 20,000 for foreign professionals who graduate with a master’s degree or doctorate from a U.S. college or university. 

Those in the MAGA base argue that the visa program is used to undercut American workers.

Some of the online reaction was overtly racist against Indians. By law, no more than 7 percent of green cards issued per year may be given to applicants from any one country. The vast majority of pending applicants are from India. And Indian workers make up the bulk of H-1B recipients, accounting for 72 percent of those approved in fiscal 2023.

A wave of Trump supporters in the tech industry, meanwhile, voiced support for bringing in high-skilled foreign workers.

Musk, who has become a close ally of Trump since the election, argued in a post on his social platform X that Silicon Valley often turns to immigrants because there are too few U.S.-born engineers. The tech billionaire, who was born in South Africa, once held an H-1B visa himself.

“OF COURSE my companies and I would prefer to hire Americans and we DO, as that is MUCH easier than going through the incredibly painful and slow work visa process,” the Tesla and SpaceX head said. “HOWEVER, there is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America.”

Ramaswamy, co-chair of Trump’s new “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) alongside Musk, previously called to “gut” the H-1B visa program during his own presidential campaign. But he chimed in on the debate by blaming the lack of U.S.-born engineers on American culture, suggesting that it has “venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long,” pointing to pop culture examples like the sitcom “Saved by the Bell” and characters Zach and Slater being “venerated” over the school nerd Screech.

His comments were not received well by fellow conservatives. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley slammed Ramaswamy, arguing that there is “nothing wrong with American workers or American culture.”

“All you have to do is look at the border and see how many want what we have,” she wrote on X. “We should be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not foreign workers.”

Other Silicon Valley conservatives, such as venture capitalists David Sacks and Joe Lonsdale, also weighed in on the debate, arguing in favor of greater high-skilled immigration. 

Sacks, who is set to serve as White House czar for artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, came to Krishnan’s defense and emphasized that he was calling for the elimination of per-country caps on green cards, not all limitations on green cards.

“Supporting a limited number of highly skilled immigrants is still a prevalent view on the right. Sriram is definitely not a ‘career leftist’!” Sacks said, responding to Loomer’s comments about Krishnan.

Lonsdale, who has reportedly been involved in DOGE planning efforts alongside Musk and Ramaswamy, said he is “against more low-end H1B immigrants” but argued the U.S. should “win at the talent game.”

Another type of foreign worker visa, the O-1 visa, is designed for “individuals with extraordinary ability or achievement” and has no caps, but it is awarded to far fewer individuals every year than H-1B visas.

The main players aimed to smooth things over. Musk agreed with a post on X that said the H-1B visa system is used to bring in “brilliant engineers” but is also “poorly implemented and abused like crazy,” with Musk responding: “Exactly.”

Sacks also seemed keen to bridge the growing divide, emphasizing that he “completely” trusts incoming White House Deputy chief for policy Stephen Miller to handle immigration policy.

“What I oppose is a baseless witch hunt against a highly qualified American for a role as A.I. adviser,” he added.

Musk, Ramaswamy and Sacks are part of a growing contingent of Silicon Valley conservatives who are headed to Washington to join the incoming Trump administration after supporting the president-elect during the campaign.

While Silicon Valley has long been considered a liberal bastion, divisions emerged within the industry earlier this year as more tech executives, including former Democratic donors, backed Trump.

Musk, who poured at least $250 million into the race to boost Trump, has become a key figure in the president-elect’s inner circle, beyond his formal position as DOGE co-chair. The tech billionaire played a central role in tanking a bipartisan deal for year-end funding in Congress earlier this month, with some jokingly referring to him as “President Musk.”

The new prominence of Musk in Republican circles adds a layer of complication to those who oppose him on immigration policy.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who is set to co-chair a DOGE subcommittee in the next Congress, echoed parts of Ramaswamy’s call for a stronger culture aimed at work while also criticizing the H-1B program.

“Put down the selfie light, and go apply for a job and replace the H1-B visa holders and all the other skilled labor jobs that foreign workers are taking and American companies are desperately trying to hire,” Greene posted on X.

Still, the relatively new alignment between MAGA World and Silicon Valley conservatives is already showing signs of fraying.

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), whom Trump tapped to serve as his attorney general before bowing out due to an ethics scandal, argued that conservatives did not ask tech executives to get involved in immigration policy.

“We welcomed the tech bros when they came running our way to avoid the 3rd grade teacher picking their kid’s gender – and the obvious Biden/Harris economic decline,” Gaetz wrote on X. “We did not ask them to engineer an immigration policy.”

In a likely subtle response to the division, Miller — an architect of Trump’s immigration policy in his first term — posted an excerpt from Trump’s 2020 Independence Day eve speech from Mt. Rushmore that said “only America, no other place” could have produced icons like the Wright brothers, the Tuskegee Airmen, Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali.

Ramaswamy sought to find common ground with Miller, arguing in a repost that this is “exactly the American spirit we need to revive.”

Trump himself, meanwhile, has been quiet on the issue as the debate has raged on X, posting on Friday instead about the death of attorney David Rivkin and the engagement of Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Ainsley Earhardt. 

But Trump in 2016 had criticized the H-1B program, saying it imported foreign workers “for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay.” His first term administration aimed to raise wage requirements for H-1B visas, but the rule was ultimately blocked.