Written by Nandita Bose
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) – Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla (NASDAQ:) and SpaceX, vowed to go to “war” to defend the H-1B visa program for foreign technology workers late on Friday amid a dispute. Between the two parties. Longtime supporters of President-elect Donald Trump and his recently acquired supporters from the tech industry.
In a post on the social media platform
He added, “I will go to war over this issue, the likes of which you cannot understand.”
Musk, a naturalized US citizen born in South Africa, received an H-1B visa, and his electric car company Tesla received 724 visas this year. H-1B visas are typically for three years, although holders can extend them or apply for green cards.
Musk’s tweet was directed at Trump supporters and immigration hardliners, who have increasingly pushed for the elimination of the H-1B visa program amid a heated debate over immigration and the place of skilled immigrants and foreign workers brought to the country on work visas.
Trump has remained silent so far on this issue. The Trump transition did not respond to a request for comment on Musk’s tweets and the H-1B visa discussion.
In the past, Trump has expressed his willingness to offer more work visas to skilled workers. He also promised to deport all immigrants who are in the United States illegally, impose tariffs to help create more jobs for American citizens and severely restrict immigration.
The case highlights how technology leaders like Musk — who played an important role in the presidential transition, advising on key personnel and policy areas — are now under scrutiny from his base.
The U.S. technology industry relies on the government’s H-1B visa program to hire skilled foreign workers to help run its companies, a workforce that critics say undercuts wages for American citizens.
The melee was sparked earlier this week by far-right activists who criticized Trump’s selection of Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-American venture capitalist, to be an AI advisor, saying he would have an impact on the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
On Friday, Steve Bannon, a longtime Trump confidant, criticized “big tech oligarchs” for supporting the H-1B program and called immigration a threat to Western civilization.
In response, Musk and many other tech billionaires have drawn a line between what they view as legal and illegal immigration.
Musk spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help Trump be elected president in November. He has posted regularly this week about the shortage of homegrown talent to fill all the in-demand positions within US tech companies.
https://i-invdn-com.investing.com/news/LYNXNPEB8T05E_L.jpg
Source link