Nikki Haley joins debate on H1B visa allocations, Sriram Krishnan receives support after racist attacks

iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has entered the debate of H1B visa allocations in the U.S., amid discussions by billionaire Elon Musk, Republican leader Vivek Ramaswamy, along with Sriram Krishnan — President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for White House policy adviser on artificial intelligence — on expanding the visa program.

Haley shared that during her tenure as Governor of South Carolina, the state’s unemployment rate went down from 11% to 4% because the government recruited foreign companies to invest in South Carolina and not their workers. She told how South Carolinians were trained for the new jobs that have now resulted in the people building planes and automobiles amongst others.

She emphasized the importance of investing in the American workforce, stating, “If the tech industry needs workers, invest in our education system. Invest in our American workforce. We must invest in Americans first before looking elsewhere. Don’t ever underestimate the talent of Americans or the American spirit.”

According to CNN, social media posts by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy arguing in favor of expanding the H-1B visa programme for highly skilled workers have sparked a debate among supporters of Trump about how the program should be fit into the incoming administration’s immigration agenda.

The debate around the H1B visa controversy was sparked by Trump on Sunday, December 22, when he announced he was appointing Sriram Krishnan to be a White House policy adviser on artificial intelligence. Krishnan quickly came under fire for a November post suggesting immigration changes: “Anything to remove country caps for green cards / unlock skilled immigration would be huge,” as reported by The Hill.

The Hill reported that by law, no more than 7% of green cards issued per year may be given to applicants from any one country, with Indian workers making up 72% of H-1B recipients in fiscal year 2023.

A wave of Trump supporters in the tech industry, meanwhile, voiced support for bringing in high-skilled foreign workers.

Despite the criticism, figures like David Sacks, a key Trump ally set to serve as White House czar for AI and cryptocurrency, defended Krishnan’s stance, emphasizing that he was calling for the elimination of per-country caps on green cards, rather than remove all limits.

Indiaspora also came in Sriram’s support and criticized the racism faced by the Indian American. “Sriram Krishnan, who was recently appointed by President-elect Trump as his Senior AI Advisor, has become a target of reprehensible racist attacks. There is absolutely no place in our public discourse for spiteful, vengeful, racially motivated, ad hominem epithets,” the statement from Indiaspora read.

“At Indiaspora, we categorically and unequivocally denounce racism of any and all kinds. As enunciated in our media statement issued a few days ago, we strongly support Sriram’s appointment to this important position because we are confident that he will serve America very well in public office,” it added.

Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna criticized those targeting Indian-born Sriram Krishnan, who was recently chosen as a senior policy advisor for Artificial Intelligence by President-elect Donald Trump, over his Indian origin.

Khanna emphasized that the ability of the United States to attract talent from around the world shows America’s “exceptionalism” which puts it ahead of other countries like China.

Following a post by an X user, who wrote, “Did any of yall vote for this Indian to run America,” Khanna on X wrote, “You fools criticizing @sriramk as Indian born criticize Musk as South African born or Jensen as Taiwanese born.”

“It is great that talent around the world wants to come here, not to China, and that Sriram can rise to the highest levels. It’s called American exceptionalism,” the post added.

Immigration had been an important issue for American voters during the 2024 U.S. Presidential elections.

While President-elect Trump has promised to shut down illegal immigration at the southern border and start a mass deportation effort, the current debate focuses on legal immigrants, exposing larger, sometimes racist, anti-immigrant fault lines, as reported by The Hill.

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