Musk, a naturalised US citizen born in South Africa, has held an H-1B visa, and his electric-car company Tesla obtained 724 of the visas this year. H-1B visas are typically for three-year periods, though holders can extend them or apply for green cards.
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Elon Musk. Image Credit: Reuters
Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX Friday vowed to go to ”war” to defend the H-1B visa program for foreign tech workers amid a dispute between President-elect Donald Trump’s longtime supporters and his most recently acquired backers from the tech industry.
In a post on social media platform X, Musk said ”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.”
”I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend,” he added.
The tech industry has consistently advocated for an increase in H-1B visas to attract highly skilled workers to the United States. However, during Donald Trump’s first administration, the program faced restrictions in 2020, with claims that it allowed businesses to replace American workers with lower-paid foreign labor.
Earlier this week, Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and staunch Trump supporter, sparked controversy by criticising Trump’s choice of Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-American venture capitalist, as an adviser on artificial intelligence policy. In a post, Loomer expressed concerns about Krishnan’s influence on immigration policies, referring to him as a “third-world invader” despite his status as a naturalised U.S. citizen.
“It’s alarming to see the number of career leftists who are now being appointed to serve in Trump’s admin when they share views that are in direct opposition to Trump’s America First agenda,” Ms. Loomer wrote on X, the social media platform owned by Mr. Musk.
Musk, a naturalised US citizen born in South Africa, has held an H-1B visa, and his electric-car company Tesla obtained 724 of the visas this year. H-1B visas are typically for three-year periods, though holders can extend them or apply for green cards.
Musk’s tweet was directed at Trump’s supporters and immigration hardliners, who have increasingly pushed for the H-1B visa program to be scrapped amid a heated debate over immigration and the place of skilled immigrants and foreign workers brought into the country on work visas.
Trump has so far remained sile