Ahead of Trump's inauguration, debate on H-1B visas intensifies

Washington: Three weeks ahead of Trump's inauguration here on January 20, the debate on foreign guest workers visas for highly skilled professionals, the H-1B, has intensified which has literally created divisions in both the Democratic and the Republican parties.

Indians are the main beneficiaries of the H-1B visas, which bring in the best of the talent and brains from across the world. Highly skilled professionals from India walk away with the overwhelming number of H-1B visas – which is Congressional mandated 65,0000 every year and another 20,000 for those who received higher education from the US.

President-elect Donald Trump, who will be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on January 20 in front of the US Capitol, has come out in support of the H-1B, so has two of his close confidants, Tesla owner Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, both of whom have been tasked to head the newly created Department of Government Efficiency.

“I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favour of the visas. That’s why we have them,” Trump told the New York Post over the weekend.

“I've always felt we have to have the most competent people in our country. We need competent people, we need smart people coming into our country, we need a lot of people coming in. We're going to have jobs like we've never had before," Trump told reporters at a New Year’s Eve party hosted by him at Mar-a-Lago.

Both Musk and Ramaswamy have argued that H-1B visas are essential to attract the best of the talent, as the US falls short in many of the specialised fields.

They have been joined by Indian American Democratic lawmakers including Ro Khanna, Raja Krishnamoorthi and Shri Thanedar who have come out in support of H-1B visas, after a sudden backlash against it as soon as Trump appointed Sriram Krishnan as his Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence.

Such a backlash initially came from the supporters of Trump who argued that this is eating away at the jobs of Americans. Both Musk and Ramaswamy immediately weighed in and supported the H-1B visas. On Thursday, influential Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders asserted that the two close confidants of Trump are wrong.

“Elon Musk and a number of other billionaire tech company owners have argued that this federal programme is vital to our economy because of the scarcity of highly skilled American engineers and other tech workers. I disagree.

"The main function of the H-1B visa programme and other guest worker initiatives is not to hire ‘the best and the brightest’, but rather to replace good-paying American jobs with low-wage indentured servants from abroad. The cheaper the labour they hire, the more money the billionaires make,” Sanders said on Thursday.

His own party colleague Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi disagreed on Monday.

“The number one competitive advantage America has is our workforce. The H-1B programme attracts the best and brightest talent from around the world and strengthens that advantage as we also invest in American workers,” he told CNN as he supported Musk and Ramaswamy in the debate.

“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. Take a big step back and FxxK YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend,” Musk had said in a post on X as a portion of the MAGA crowd started attacking Krishnan on his appointment which soon expanded to the debate on H-1B visas.

“The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born and first-generation engineers over ‘native’ Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy and wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the C-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers and if we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the TRUTH,” argued Ramaswamy.

Indian American Congressman Khanna told Newsweek that America is a magnet for the world's brightest talent.

“To compete with China, we want to attract the best engineers and technologists. But the H-1B programme has been abused. That's why I have been co-leading the bipartisan H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act to make sure American workers are never replaced and that H-1B workers aren't paid below market wages that hurts the compensation of American employees,” he said.

“All Americans make America great, including immigrants. We must increase H1B tenfold and eliminate country quotas. Make it easy to check immigration status, give EAD to all green card applicants, and quadruple the USCIS staffing budget to expedite legal immigration. This is how you make America the greatest ever,” Indian American Congressman Thanedar said.