washington4 days ago
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The debate regarding Indian immigrants has intensified in America between some supporters of Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Musk and Indian-origin leader Vivek Ramaswamy are supporting merit-based immigration reform i.e. H-1B visa.
At the same time, some Trump supporters like Laura Loomer, Matt Gaetz and Ann Coulter are against it. According to him, this will give the share of American jobs to foreigners.
This controversy started when on December 23, Indian-origin Sriram Krishnan was appointed as AI Policy Advisor in the Donald Trump administration. Krishnan is a Chennai-born Indian-American engineer. Krishnan’s appointment angered pro-Trump social media influencer Laura Loomer.
Laura is known for making racist statements. He had said a few months ago that if Kamala became President, the entire White House would smell like curry.
Laura wrote on social media-
It is disturbing that so many leftist people are now being appointed to the Trump administration. These people hold views that are directly against the America First agenda. Our country was built by white Europeans, not Indians.
Laura also raised questions about an old post by Sriram Krishnan, in which he supported the expansion of visas and green cards for skilled workers.
After this Musk entered into this debate. Musk himself is an immigrant from South Africa. He said that America does not have as many skilled people as American companies need. Musk said that if you want your team to win championships, you have to recruit better people, no matter where they are from.
Elon Musk said in another post-
What do you want, America to win or lose? If you force the world’s best talent to move to the other side, America will lose. All matters end here.
In response, Loomer said that Musk is not with Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA). They are an obstacle to Trump. He is associated with Trump only for his own benefit.
Laura also said that Musk wants everyone to consider him a hero because he spent 250 million dollars (2 thousand crore rupees) in contesting the elections against Trump. But this is not a big deal because by investing so much money, Trump is going to earn much more than this.
Elon Musk has defended the H-1B visa policy.
Ramaswamy said – without skilled foreigners America’s downfall is certain
The real fight started when Vivek Ramaswamy came in support of Musk. He made such a post in support of Musk which sparked more controversy. Ramaswamy wrote that without skilled foreigners, America’s decline was certain.
Ramaswamy said that top companies hire foreigners instead of native Americans. This is not because Americans lack innate IQ. Rather, it is because American culture is moving towards mediocrity. What he meant to say was that in America, the importance of fashion is increasing more than that of education.
However, American right-wingers got enraged by this post of Ramaswamy. Laura said that if India was so highly skilled, people would have stayed there instead of going to America. Let’s say you want them for cheap wages. Even if people call him ‘racist’ for this.
Nikki Haley was also among those who opposed Vivek Ramaswamy. Nikki Haley said-
There is nothing wrong with American culture. We must invest in and prioritize Americans, not foreign workers.
Nikki Haley is of Indian origin and is a leader of the Republican Party. This time he had challenged Trump in the party’s primary election.
What is H-1B visa?
Last time during his presidency, Trump had banned H-1B visas, but this time his stance on this issue seems to be soft. In a podcast this year, Trump supported giving green cards to foreign graduates of American universities.
H-1B is a non-immigrant visa that allows American companies to hire foreign professionals for positions requiring specialized technical skills. Through this visa, companies in the technology sector recruit thousands of employees from countries like India and China every year.
H-1B visa is usually issued to those people who are associated with a particular profession (such as IT professionals, architecture, health professionals, etc.). Only those professionals who are offered a job can get this visa. It completely depends on the employer. That means, if the employer fires you and another employer does not offer you, the visa will expire.
America gives H-1B visas to 65,000 people every year. Its time limit is for 3 years. If needed, it can be extended for another 3 years. Indian people get 7 out of 10 H-1B visas in America. After this comes China, Canada and South Korea.