With less than a month to go until inauguration day, strife has already begun to wear at the foundation of the new MAGA administration. Many right-wing politicians are voicing concern over support from some of the Trump administration’s most potent players for H-1B visas – documentation that allows non-immigrants permits to work in the United States.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will defend the visas upon Trump’s inauguration and head the Department of Government Efficiency. “I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend,” Musk wrote on X as part of his defense of the visas. “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,” he continued.
On the other side of the debate are staunch anti-immigration republicans Steve Bannon, who referred to the H-1B visa program as a “scam,” and Laura Loomer, who slammed Ramaswamy and suggested Trump distance himself from DOGE. “At what point do we say, ‘Thank you so much for supporting President Trump and donating to his ground gains, but these conflicts are inappropriate, and they’re going to cause potential conflicts for President Trump and his nominees in the administration,” she said. “We need to have an honest conversation about this. We need to protect President Trump from these conflicts.”
Opponents of the H-1B visa argue that it allows businesses to prioritize hiring foreign workers, who can pay a lesser wage than domestic workers. Musk and Ramaswamy argue that domestic American workers do not have the same skills or work ethic as many foreign workers. “There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent. It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley,” Musk wrote on X on December 25. Many foreign workers chosen for H-1B visas can access free higher education and healthcare in their countries, which American workers do not have the same access to.
As the in-fighting continues among Republicans, Trump weighed in on the issue. “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,” he said. In 2020, the Trump administration required employers to pay H-1B visa holders higher wages to discourage prioritizing foreign workers over domestic labor.
