Appearing in Nikhil Kamath’s People by WTF podcast that was released on Sunday, Elon Musk said that some of the Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies were triggered by the ‘misuse’ of the H-1B visa programme. However, he suggested that the programme should not be closed.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man who was once a close aide of US President Donald Trump, has said that the United States has ‘immensely’ benefited by hiring ‘talented’ Indians over the decades. The Tesla chief executive officer’s (CEO) remarks come amid the ongoing row over H-1B visa programme and immigration in the US.ย
Appearing in Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath’s People by WTF podcast that was released on Sunday, the SpaceX chief said that some of the Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies were triggered by the ‘misuse’ of the H-1B visa programme. However, he suggested that the programme should not be shut down.ย ย
“I think there’s been some misuse of the, you know, H-1B programme. It would be accurate to say that there’s, you know, like some of the outsourcing companies have kind of gamed the system on the H-1B front, and we need to stop the gaming of the system. But I’m certainly not in the school of thought that we should shut down the H1B programme,” he said.
Musk, who is also the owner of micro-blogging website X (formerly Twitter), also spoke about the perspective of some US nationals that H-1B visa is snatching jobs from them. However, Musk said that the US should focus on getting ‘most talented people’ of the world.
“I don’t know how real that is. My direct observation is that there’s always a scarcity of talented people. So you know, from my standpoint, I’m like we have a lot of difficulty finding enough talented people to get these difficult tasks done and so more talented people would be good,” he said.
The H-1B visa was introduced in 1990 when George HW Bush was the president. The programme has hugely benefited foreign nationals, particularly Indians and Chinese, who look for opportunities in the US. However, in September, the Trump administration announced a massive hike in H-1B Visa fees to USD 100,000, a move that triggered panic among Indians.
The US has defended the move, citing the misuse of the H-1B visa.ย
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