Trump endorses H-1B visa for skilled foreign workers Despite backing H-1B visa programme, President-elect vows to deport undocumented immigrants President-elect Donald Trump has publicly endorsed the H-1B worker visa programme, aligning himself with tech magnate Elon Musk and sparking a contentious debate among his supporters over highly skilled foreign workers’ entry into the United States. "I’ve always liked the (H1-B) visas, I have always been in favour of the visas, that’s why we have them" at Trump-owned facilities, the president-elect told the New York Post in his first public comments on the matter since it flared up this week. An angry back-and-forth, largely between Silicon Valley’s Musk and traditional anti-immigration Trump backers, has erupted in fiery fashion, with Musk even vowing to "go to war" over the issue.
Trump’s insistent calls for sharp curbs on immigration were central to his election victory in November over President Joe Biden. He has vowed to deport all undocumented immigrants and limit legal immigration. But tech entrepreneurs like Tesla’s Musk -- as well as Vivek Ramaswamy, who with Musk is to co-chair a government cost-cutting panel under Trump -- say the United States produces too few highly skilled graduates, and they fervently champion the H1-B program.
Musk, who himself migrated from South Africa on an H1-B, posted Thursday on his X platform that luring elite engineering talent from abroad was "essential for America to keep winning.