President-elect Donald Trump appears to be siding with Elon Musk and other tech industry backers as a dispute over immigrant visas divides his supporters.
In an interview with the New York Post on Saturday, President Trump praised the use of visas to bring skilled foreign workers to the United States. The topic has become a flashpoint within his conservative circles.
“I’ve always liked visas, I’ve always been in favor of visas. That’s why we have them,” Trump said.
In fact, President Trump has criticized the H-1B visa in the past, calling it “very bad” and “unfair” to American workers. During his first term as president, he announced the “Hire American” policy, directing changes to the program to ensure that visas were granted to the highest-paying or most skilled applicants.
Despite criticism against him and attempts to curb its use, he has used the Visa for his businesses in the past, which he acknowledged in an interview Saturday.
“I have a lot of H-1B visas on my properties. I believed in H-1B. I’ve used it several times. It’s a great program,” Trump told the newspaper.
He did not appear to respond to questions about whether he would push for changes to the number or purposes of visas after taking office on January 20.
Trump’s hard-line immigration policies, focused primarily on undocumented immigrants, were a cornerstone of his presidential campaign and a top issue for his supporters.
But his coalition has recently been divided in a public debate, mostly online, about hiring foreign workers in the tech industry. Hard-line members of the Trump movement have accused Musk and Trump’s new tech allies of pushing policies that run counter to Trump’s “America First” vision.
Software engineers and others in the technology industry have been using H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers and say they are an important tool for hard-to-fill positions. But critics say it has reduced the number of U.S. citizens available for those jobs. Some on the right have called for the program to be abolished.
