Washington, 31 Dec

After vowing to "go to war" to defend the H-1B visa programme, tech billionaire Elon Musk has softened his stand on the issue by calling for reforms in the "broken" system used to bring skilled foreign workers to the US.

Musk, along with Indian-American tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, has been tapped by Trump to lead his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Last week, Musk argued that foreign workers were needed for tech companies like Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla. "The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H-1B," Musk last week wrote on X.

Musk, however, appeared to retract his earlier statement in response to a post by an X user who said America needed to be a destination for the world’s most "elite talent" but argued the current H-1B system was not the solution. "Easily fixed by raising the minimum salary significantly and adding a yearly cost for maintaining the H-1B, making it materially more expensive to hire from overseas than domestically. I’ve been very clear that the programme is broken and needs major reform," Musk on Sunday said in a post on X.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China. The tech industry has long called for more H-1B visas to attract highly skilled workers to the US.

Musk, who was once on an H-1B visa and whose electric vehicle company Tesla has hired workers using the programme, defended the tech industry's need to hire foreign workers. "Anyone - of any race, creed or nationality - who came to America and worked like hell to contribute to this country will forever have my respect. America is the land of freedom and opportunity. Fight with every fibre of your being to keep it that way!" he wrote on X on 28 December.

Musk's statement also received backing from president-elect Donald Trump whose first administration restricted the programme in 2020, arguing that it allows businesses to replace Americans with lower-paid foreign workers.

However, Trump recently said: “I've always liked the visas, I have always been in favour of the visas. That's why we have them."

Musk has been consistently posting on X in favour of the programme. "There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent. It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley," Musk wrote on 25 December on X.

Several of Trump’s supporters and immigration hardliners have been increasingly pushing for scrapping the H-1B visa programme amid debate over immigration.

The debate sparked when Laura Loomer, a right-wing influencer, criticised Trump's selection of Indian-American entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan as an adviser on artificial intelligence policy in his coming administration. Krishnan favours the ability to bring more skilled immigrants into the US.

Loomer declared the stance to be "not America First policy" and said the tech executives who have aligned themselves with Trump were doing so to enrich themselves.

The debate intensified when Ramaswamy criticised American culture for promoting mediocrity instead of focusing on academic excellence and success based on merit.

“Trump’s election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up. A culture that once again prioritises achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness,” Ramaswamy said on Thursday.

He faced backlash for the comment.

In response, Musk called for removing “contemptible fools” from the Republican Party who oppose his immigration agenda.

Musk later clarified that his statement was addressing the “hateful, unrepentant racists” he considers a threat to the Republican Party's future.