MAGA must dial down hate after Trump’s support for H-1B visas
With Donald Trump throwing his weight behind the popular H-1B visa scheme, one element of concern for lakhs of highly skilled Indians receded. For, Indians are its biggest beneficiaries—as much as 72 percent of all H-1B visas went to them in 2023. From calling H-1B very bad and unfair in his first tenure, the US president-elect swung to the other end of the spectrum by claiming ‘he always liked it’ in a recent media interview. Last June, he appeared expansive as he suggested that international students should automatically get green cards when they graduate from US colleges.
While Trump is capable of policy flips in a blink, his fight essentially is against illegal immigration. That is in sync with the known position of Indian-American Sriram Krishnan, whom he recently appointed as senior policy advisor on AI in the White House. Krishnan’s hire triggered a firestorm of protest and a flurry of hate messaging on social media since he advocates merit-based immigration and favours lifting country caps on green cards.
Country-specific limits put those with a large talent pool at a huge disadvantage. Indians can, at present, aspire for only 7 percent of the annual green cards. Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) ecosystem saw Krishnan’s appointment undermining the America First movement. They accused him of intending to populate Silicon Valley with Indian H-1B visa holders at the expense of native American STEM (Science, Tech, Engg, Maths) graduates.
Trump’s stars Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy pushed back and listed the merits of continuing the foreign worker visa programme, but were panned by fellow Republican elite like Steve Bannon and Nikki Haley. Ramaswamy lit the nationalist fuse, castigating American culture as venerating mediocrity over excellence. Bannon hit back, saying support for H-1B was a ‘total scam’. And Haley didn’t see anything wrong with American workers or its culture. It was this mixed messaging Trump sought to address by indicating his leaning.
Multiple studies suggest that H-1B visa holders complement US workers and are not job stealers as both bring different skill sets to the table. The innovations of foreign workers fuel economic growth and persuade companies to stay invested in the US rather than looking for offshore opportunities. With Trump taking an unambiguous position, MAGA ought to dial down its anti-India propaganda machine for good.