Why are US Republicans debating the future of H-1B visas for high-skilled work? | Business and business news

A debate over what strict immigration policies will look like on work visas for highly skilled workers has become the first major political dispute among prominent supporters of US President-elect Donald Trump – just weeks before the Republican’s new term as president.

On one side are members of Trump’s so-called “Make America Great Again,” or MAGA, movement, which has called for a crackdown on H-1B visas for high-skilled workers as part of the president-elect’s broader promise to tighten migration and immigration have .

Trump’s campaign promises focused particularly on the U.S.-Mexico border, although he has also introduced other restrictions.

In the other camp are prominent Trump supporters – including tech billionaire Elon Musk – who have defended the visas as essential to US industrial and economic growth.

Here’s what you should know.

How did this start?

The latest debate erupted when Laura Loomer, a far-right figure who has had close ties to Trump in the past, took to social media to criticize the president-elect’s choice of an artificial intelligence adviser who had argued the U.S. needed more foreign skilled workers to stay competitive in the technology industry.

The criticism from Loomer, who has been accused of racism and spreading conspiracy theories in the past, was quickly echoed by several prominent figures in the tech industry.

These included SpaceX and Tesla CEO Musk, who was appointed by Trump to lead a government efficiency advisory board.

In response, Loomer accused the tech billionaires of trying to influence Trump for their own benefit.

“We must protect President Trump from the technocrats,” Loomer said in a post on X on December 25.

Who receives H-1B visas?

H-1B visas are typically reserved for specialized foreign workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher who have been offered temporary employment in the United States at an industry-standard wage.

US authorities can issue 65,000 new H-1B visas per year, potentially an additional 20,000 for people with master’s degrees.

Visas can also be extended after they expire, with more than 309,000 people approved for continued employment in fiscal year 2022, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

About 70 percent of H-1B visa recipients come from India and another 10 percent from China.

What did Musk and other H-1B proponents say?

Musk said that “the number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated is far too small in the US” and described the H-1B program as crucial “to those who want America to win.”

In a series of posts on X, which he also owns, Musk also vowed to “go to war on this issue.”

Vivek Ramaswamy, a former presidential candidate who was chosen to work alongside Musk on the government’s efficiency committee, criticized the program as “badly broken” but does not advocate scrapping the programs entirely, saying instead that the visas on the should be given on the basis of their merits.

Ramaswamy angered the hard-line, anti-immigrant faction of Trump’s supporters after he posted on social media Thursday that tech companies were hiring immigrants because “for far too long American culture has revered mediocrity over excellence.”

“A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math Olympian or the athlete over the valedictorian will not produce the best engineers,” he wrote.

What about Trump?

Trump spoke on the subject for the first time on Saturday.

He told the New York Post: “I have a lot of H-1B visas for my properties. I believed in H-1B.”

“I’ve used it many times,” he said, referring to his own real estate projects. “It’s a great program.”

However, the statements were a departure for the president-elect.

In the past, he has criticized visas as “very bad” and “unfair” to U.S. workers, and his administration tried to raise hurdles for applicants during his first term.

Why is this important?

The back and forth underscores a growing fault line between many of Trump’s early supporters and those, like Musk, who only supported him in the 2024 campaign. Many of the latter – like Musk – are associated with the tech industry and are less likely to amplify nativist rhetoric.

The infighting could impact the next four years of Trump’s presidency, with Musk already warning of a “MAGA civil war” over the matter.

Several of Trump’s most prominent supporters during his first term have joined in, including strategist Steve Bannon, who condemned “Big Tech oligarchs” supporting the visas.