Over the holidays, when President-elect Donald Trump said he would appoint an Indian-American immigrant to serve in the White House, key members of Trump’s base were apoplectic. On X, formerly Twitter, prominent Trump supporters like Steve Bannon and Laura Loomer argued the move was antithetical to Trump’s pledge to scale back immigration. That put them at odds with billionaire advisor Elon Musk and other tech executives who are leaning on Trump to embrace the use of H-1B visas, which allow highly skilled foreign workers to work in the U.S. and have proven to be a boon for the tech industry.
Today on Lever Time, senior podcast producer Arjun Singh unpacks the history of high-skilled immigration to the United States and why the matter has become a flash point within Trump’s coalition.
To read a transcript of the episode, click here.
These two things are simultaneously true: that Silicon Valley would not be what it is today without the immigration of significant foreign talent, and that the H1-B visa system has been massively gamed to reduce the wages and bargaining power of US citizens. It needs to be sharply re-regulated, especially now when many Americans have been layed off and are reporting a flat-lined hiring market. We don’t need more H1-Bs in the year following massive layoffs by most of the tech giants.