Civil war? MAGA crowd fumes at Vivek and Elon for pro-immigration stance

The fervently pro-Trump MAGA movement is facing a schism over the dilemma of how to actually make America great again. The right-wingers of the tech world, including Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, are now being attacked over their pro-immigration statements.

Most supporters of Donald Trump, the US president-elect, disdain immigration as a whole. Unsurprisingly, Trump successfully wooed them during the election campaign with promises of mass deportations and the end of birthright citizenship.

However, Musk and Ramaswamy, the co-chiefs of the incoming administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative, now seem to support Silicon Valley’s push toward offering more visas to highly skilled foreign workers.

Musk has, for instance, more than once agreed publicly on X with complaints of tech executives, saying they find it hard to hire highly educated immigrants. The owner of Tesla, SpaceX, and X also wrote: “There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent. It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.”

There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent. It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.

undefined Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 25, 2024

Musk’s Tesla obtained 724 H-1B visas – granted to foreign workers with specialized skills – in 2024 alone. Ramaswamy also supports the program and has hinted that rolling it back would harm US competitiveness, especially in sectors like tech.

Foreign-born workers in the US in 2021 made up nearly 20% of the overall STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) workforce and nearly 60% of doctorate-level computer scientists, mathematicians, and engineers, according to the National Science Foundation.

Bizarrely, Ramaswamy blamed a series of 1990s TV sitcoms for a decline in US dynamism in science and technology. According to him, the nineties culture has made Americans mentally lazy.

“A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers,” Ramaswamy – who is himself a child of immigrants – wrote in a post on X.

“A culture that venerates Cory from Boy Meets World or Zach & Slater over Screech in Saved by the Bell, or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in Family Matters will not produce the best engineers.”

The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if…

undefined Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 26, 2024

Ramaswamy also said that America needs a new “Sputnik moment” to spur domestic advancement in science and technology and to choose “nerdiness over conformity.”

He added: “More math tutoring, fewer sleepovers. More weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons. More books, less TV. More creating, less ‘chillin.’ More extracurriculars, less ‘hanging out at the mall’.”

Predictably, his post set off a firestorm amongst the most ardent Trump supporters from the far-right MAGA crowd who all have consistently said they want to stop or at least all immigration. Moderate Republicans have also joined in.

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, a Trump rival, wrote on X: “There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture. <...> We should be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not foreign workers.”

There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture. All you have to do is look at the border and see how many want what we have. We should be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not foreign workers. https://t.co/fIGr45C3LD

undefined Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) December 26, 2024

Trump’s current stance is unclear – hence the intense lobbying efforts. However, during his first term, Trump made significant cuts to the H-1B visa program, and if the masses of his supporters still want them, it’s highly probable the restrictionist corner will win out.

For now, Musk and Ramaswamy are on the defensive. The richest individual on Earth said this week: “OF COURSE, my companies and I would prefer to hire Americans and we DO, as that is MUCH easier than going through the incredibly painful and slow work visa process.”

“HOWEVER, there is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America,” Musk pointed out.