Days after Elon Musk defended the H-1B visa, he changed his tune, calling the program “broken” and calling for major reforms, including higher salaries and additional costs to make hiring overseas workers more expensive. What’s driving the change in Musk’s position? Is it MAGA-fueled scepticism, economic pragmatism, or concerns over US companies exploiting the visa program?
And as MAGA tech-bros go head-to-head with the MAGA right in a very heated fight over H-1B visas and skilled immigration, it seems President-elect Donald Trump’s ally Elon Musk has nimbly moved from one position to another.
Days after Tesla, X and SpaceX boss Musk said he “will go to war” backing the H-1B visa and asked right-wingers to “take a big step back”, he mellowed down, saying the H-1B “program is broken and needs major reform”. He also called for “raising the minimum salary significantly and adding a yearly cost for maintaining the H-1B, making it materially more expensive to hire from overseas than domestically”.
What drove Musk’s reversal from advocating the H-1B visa program? Was it a response to MAGA-fueled scepticism, a homage to economic pragmatism, or the consequence of fears about companies exploiting the US system?
MAGA led up to Donald Trump’s inauguration with heated battles over skilled worker immigration even as his campaign rhetoric attacked those on the opposite end of the spectrum, which involved low-skilled and illegal immigration.
