Santa Marta, Columbia Almost as predicable as the sun rising in the east was the likelihood of a spit fight on the far right about immigrant visas. Actually, it’s only partially about visas, but mainly about immigrants themselves. Some hate them all. Others hate all of them except the ones that make them money. Both sides of this fight make claims about American workers, as a thin veneer for their positions. One says they hate immigrants because it takes away American jobs. The other says, they hate immigrants, but want an unlimited number of skilled immigrants, because Americans aren’t good enough for the jobs. The truth is that both really don’t care for immigrants or workers.
In recent days, the tech gang, led by Elon Musk, the world’s riches biped, humanity uncertain, who some sources are calling Trump’s co-president, which I would bet big money drives Trump crazy and will eventually kill the relationship, wants either no limits or higher limits than the current 65,000 for high-skilled immigrants to get H-1B visas. The farther right-wingers want to shut the door and lock it tightly for all immigrants.
The fight has probably been going on behind the scenes for weeks, but it all broke out in the open recently capturing headlines everywhere, as the sides tried to sway the President-elect. Musk counts himself as an H-1B beneficiary, originally from South Africa, and now a US citizen, which is kind of necessary to grab all of his government contracts. The soon-to-be anointed, I mean approved, nominee for the position handling all of this is from India originally, which raises some of the heavier breathers’ hackles as well.
Poor Donald Trump was forced to jump into this to quell the storm in his ranks, but might should have let it rage longer, so he could actually figure it out, because it turns out he is totally clueless about what all of these letters and numbers mean. In an interview, he said: “I have many H-1B visas on my properties,” he told The New York Post. “I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program.” Unfortunately, he may have forgotten that he should have checked with his people before jumping into the fray. The Times checked even when he didn’t and found the following:
…Trump appears to have only sparingly used the H-1B visa program, which allows skilled workers like software engineers to work in the United States for up to three years and can be extended to six years. Instead, he has been a frequent and longtime user of the similarly named, but starkly different, H-2B visa program, which is for unskilled workers like gardeners and housekeepers, as well as the H-2A program, which is for agricultural workers. Those visas allow a worker to remain in the country for 10 months. Federal data show Mr. Trump’s companies have received approval to employ over 1,000 workers through the two H-2 programs in the past 20 years.
If Trump had hoped to settle the waters, his comments did little in that regard. Musk and his buddies chortled like they had won this skirmish, even as Steve Bannon and others went hard on the other side, but clearly Trump was clueless.
One of the anti-immigrant provocateurs, the always controversial Laura Loomer, has been stirring this pot. I have to admit that I never thought I would find myself agreeing with anything she had to say from her side of the fence, but even this exception hopefully will prove that rule. Musk in his semi-defense claimed he was only interested in bringing over the “0.1%” of highly skilled global engineers. No one was fact-checking for the Musk man either it seems. Loomer gave better than she got.
…Musk tried to clarify that he was talking about “bringing in via legal immigration the top ~0.1% of engineering talent as being essential for America to keep winning.” Loomer wasn’t buying it, pointing to a public database of Tesla jobs proposed for foreign visa holders that pay less than $100,000 base salaries. “So you’re telling me that $70k per year entry level jobs are .1% level talent?” she asked. She followed with another post: “Nobody can afford to live off of $70,000 a year in today’s America. Stop crying about declining birthrates when you want us to live like a bunch of welfare queens.”
Ouch, that one had to hurt. Call it Loomer 1, Musk 0 on that one. Musk owns Twitter-X, so, licking his wounds, he recommended people ignore her as a troll. She said, maybe he kicked her off of the verified elite status, but he was still deducting her money every month. Score that one, Loomer 2, Musk 0.
She’s winning this dispute, but it’s a long way from being settled, and the truth is that both of them are tragically wrong, and it’s Loomer and Musk 1 and America 0 in this fight, despite our joy at the “falling out among thieves.” We need to protect and advance immigrants seeking asylum and create a path for legalization for all that are here now, while dealing fairly with our borders for both those families living on our side and other families trying to enter from the other side, and do all of this while giving existing workers priority. Let’s talk about that people.