‘Reason I’m In America’: Elon And Other Trump Allies Battle It Out Over Foreign Worker Visa Program

Billionaire Elon Musk joined in on heated debate over the H-1B visa immigration program this week, saying that some tech companies have to outsource skilled positions and arguing that the H-1B program makes America stronger.

His position pitted him against many conservative commentators who came out against the position, arguing that the H-1B program prioritizes foreigners over skilled Americans, brings down wages, and actually hurts innovation.

Musk said that U.S. companies, such as Apple, are being forced to outsource skilled positions because the “expertise they need simply does not exist in America in sufficient quantity.”

“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 posted to X on Saturday, before busting out a quote from the comedy Tropic Thunder. “Take a big step back and F*** YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.”

In another post, Musk endorsed a position posited by CNN contributor Scott Jennings, who said the program needs to be overhauled to stop companies from using it for cheap labor, while instead using the program to recruit the top .01% from other nations.

“If you’re using the H-1B program to abuse it, to recruit interns, accountants who could easily be recruited in the USA, because you want to do it cheaper? That’s not fine,” Jennings said. “What a lot of people in the party want to do is eliminate the fraud in this H-1B program, retain the top engineering talent; there’s a way to do this.”

The debate all started when, in a post centered around 90s sitcom references, former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy argued that companies are forced to hire skilled foreigners because, in part, the American culture “has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long.”

“A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers,” he wrote. “A culture that venerates Cory from ‘Boy Meets World,’ or Zach & Slater over Screech in ‘Saved by the Bell,’ or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in ‘Family Matters,’ will not produce the best engineers.”

Ramaswamy said American culture needs to change to once again prioritize “achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness.”

“That’s the work we have cut out for us, rather than wallowing in victimhood & just wishing (or legislating) alternative hiring practices into existence. I’m confident we can do it,” he added. 

The post went viral, generating more than 96 million views and more than 46,000 comments. Many noted their impressive resumes and test scores while claiming they have been overlooked for work in the tech industry, rebutting Ramaswamy.

Nikki Haley, who formerly served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, replied, “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. We should be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not foreign workers.”

Eric Weinstein, who earned a PhD in mathematical physics from Harvard, argued strongly against the H-1B visa program. Weinstein said the program effectively displaces America’s “great” minds and talent for foreign talent. He also said the outcome, for one thing, creates “pliant” employees, which hurts America overall.

Republican strategist Shermichael Singleton posted on X, “Vivek and Elon are wrong. We do not need to bring in more immigrants via H-1B. We need to focus on domestic skill development! Let’s educate our own people for those jobs.”

Others highlighted President-elect Donald Trump’s past position on the program, which was articulated in 2016.

“The H-1B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration: these are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay,” Trump said at the time. “I remain totally committed to eliminating rampant, widespread H-1B abuse and ending outrageous practices such as those that occurred at Disney in Florida when Americans were forced to train their foreign replacements.”

“I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program. No exceptions,” he added.

But Trump on Saturday said he now supports the visa program. “I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them,” Trump told the New York Post. “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.”

Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing waded into the debate, noting that the U.S. immigration system has been “weaponized to destroy our culture and national identity for decades.” He said the entire system needs to be fixed before the country can have a healthy debate over how to best design a foreign worker visa program.

“Our immigration system has been weaponized to destroy our culture and national identity for decades,” he wrote. “Immigration has also been fundamental to our national character and history, and high-skilled immigration (which represents only a tiny fraction of total immigration) is a great tool for maintaining technological and economic hegemony.”

“But until the system stops being weaponized against us, people will continue to become more radical on the issue,” Boreing continued. “Elon and Vivek et al are making a mistake defending h1bs at the moment, not because they are wrong on the merits, but because they are wrong on the politics. You can’t win a philosophical argument on this topic when the country is being overrun.”

“Solve the existential problem and people will be in a better mood to have nuanced discussions about what a proper immigration policy should look like,” he added. “Not the right-wing socialist Bernie Bro types or groyper racists, of course. They will never care about nuance. But everyone else. That’s what this moment requires.”

Related News