New York.
President-elect Donald Trump announced that he believes in the “H-1B” visa, dismissing reports of opposition from qualified professionals. “It’s a wonderful program,” he told the New York Post in a phone interview on Saturday. In his unique style he said, “I have always liked Visa, I have always been in favor of Visa. That’s why we have these.”
“I have multiple H-1B visas on my properties,” he told the newspaper, part of Rupert Murdoch-controlled News Corp. I have been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times.” Trump has supported reform of the immigration system to make it more meritocratic. A points system like Canada or Australia could be adopted that gives importance to educational and employment qualifications. He said he wants foreign students graduating from American universities to receive green cards with their diplomas. He said during his campaign this year, “What I want to do and what I will do is that you graduate from college, I think you have to have as part of your diploma the ability to be able to stay in this country. Should automatically get a green card.” The differences between Trump over H-1B visas and immigration of highly qualified individuals emerged when he appointed Sriram Krishnan, an Indian immigrant, as his AI advisor. Laura Loomer was the first to raise her voice in protest. Who is considered one of Trump’s loyalists. “Very upset to see Sriram Krishnan appointed,” he posted on Musk’s ex. Laura claimed that Krishnan wants to remove all restrictions on the number of green cards. David Sachs, whom Trump has named crypto and AI czar and who will be Krishnan’s boss, told X that he had only suggested removing the limit on the number of green cards that can be granted to individual countries, While maintaining the overall limit so that green cards can be distributed to those who have very high backlogs. When personal attacks and false allegations came against Krishnan, Sacks again came to his defense and wrote on X that “the lies simply changed, including some attacks on him.” Musk took a personal approach and posted on Instagram, “I am with so many important people in America who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies who made America stronger, the reason is H-1B.” He warned that America would “lose” without attracting the world’s best talent. “There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent,” he wrote on X. “This is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.” “If you force the world’s best talent to play for the other side, America will lose,” he wrote, and challenged critics by asking whether they wanted to see America win or lose. Indians are by far the largest recipients of H-1B visas, receiving 72.3 percent last year.
