It’s easy to despise Elon Musk as a supremely loathsome power-mad egomaniac. But he’s also the richest man in the world, and he got that way by immigrating to the United States and seizing the opportunities he found here to foster advanced technologies, from electric vehicles to rockets.
Musk knows something about building companies, creating jobs and boosting economic growth. And one key to that success, he maintains, is to import the best innovators from around the world using a program called H-1B work visas, the same program Musk himself utilized when he first arrived here from his native South Africa in the early 1990s.
The program provides up to 85,000 visas a year for experts in advanced scientific and technological fields, and as Musk wrote recently: “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. … I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.”
In fact, he asserted on X, the social media platform he owns, “We should greatly increase legal immigration of anyone who is hardworking, honest and loves America. Every such person is an asset to the country.”
Musk is right about that, and he’s even converted his buddy Donald Trump, who vowed during his 2016 campaign to “end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program.” Just recently, Trump told the New York Post, “I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program.”
We know Trump is a cynical hypocrite who has exploited nativist fears during his entire political career and vows to deport millions of undocumented foreigners. We also know he has no core principles apart from self-advancement, and can be easily influenced by persuasive advisers like Musk.
Still, on this issue, Trump’s conversion is well-founded. And Musk has bolstered his determination to resist the extreme immigration hardliners in his own party — led by former White House adviser Steve Bannon, who recently called for the “complete and total elimination” of the H-1B program and erroneously charged that it is “taking American jobs and bringing over what essentially become indentured servants at lower wages.”
The H-1B program is not perfect, and even Musk agrees that visa holders should be paid better. But it is economic illiteracy — even idiocy — to oppose a program that is so important to our prosperity. As Musk says, it should be expanded, not restricted.
“Research shows that H-1B workers complement U.S. workers, fill employment gaps in many STEM occupations, and expand job opportunities for all,” concluded a report by the American Immigration Council, the research arm of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
There are five benefits to the program, argues the council. “First, immigrant workers and native-born workers often have different skill sets, meaning that they fill different types of jobs” and don’t compete directly with each other. “Second, immigrant workers spend and invest their wages in the U.S. economy, which increases consumer demand and creates new jobs.”
The third benefit: “Businesses respond to the presence of immigrant workers and consumers by expanding their operations in the United States” rather than moving overseas. “Fourth, immigrants themselves frequently create new businesses,” says the council. “And fifth, the new ideas and innovations developed by immigrants fuel economic growth.”
The battle over H-1B work visas is only part of a much larger debate over the role of immigrants in American life. Yes, they create new products and high-tech jobs, but they also fill many other vital, if less visible, roles — from fruit pickers and meat packers to construction workers, health care aides and small business owners.
“Immigrants are America’s rocket fuel, powering our nation’s unsurpassed economic and cultural achievements,” argues a New York Times editorial. “The famous poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty mischaracterizes those who leave their home countries behind. They are not the tired and the poor; they are people possessed of the determination, skill and resources to seek a better life. …
“There’s a more basic imperative, too,” adds the Times. “America needs more people. Americans no longer make enough babies to maintain the country’s population. To sustain economic growth, the United States needs an infusion of a few million immigrants every year.”
It’s a positive sign that Trump is listening to Musk when it comes to attracting top-flight scientific talent. But he has a very long way to go in understanding the invaluable contributions other immigrants make to a better America.