Why are US Republicans debating the future of H-1B high-skill work visas?

A debate over what shape hardline immigration policies will take regarding high-skilled work visas has become the first major policy dispute among prominent supporters of United States President-elect Donald Trump – just weeks ahead of the Republican’s new presidential term.

On one side are members of Trump’s so-called “Make America Great Again”, or MAGA movement, who have called for a crackdown on the high-skilled H-1B visas as part of the president-elect’s wider pledge to tighten migration and immigration.

Trump’s campaign pledges particularly focused on the US-Mexico border, although he has floated other restrictions.

In the other camp are prominent Trump supporters – including tech billionaire Elon Musk – who have defended the visas as essential to US industrial and economic growth.

Here’s what to know.

How did this start?

The latest debate sparked when Laura Loomer, a far-right personality who has had close ties to Trump in the past, took to social media to criticise the president-elect’s selection of an adviser on artificial intelligence, who has argued the US needs more foreign skilled workers to remain competitive in the technology industries.

The criticism from Loomer, who has been accused of racism and spreading conspiracy theories in the past, was quickly seized on by several high-profile figures in the tech industry.

That included SpaceX and Tesla CEO Musk, who has been tapped by Trump to lead a government efficiency advisory board.

In response, Loomer accused tech billionaires of influencing Trump for their own gains.

“We have to protect President Trump from the technocrats,” Loomer said in a post on X on December 25.

Who receives H-1B visas?

H-1B visas are typically reserved for specialised foreign workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher who have been offered a temporary job paying an industry-standard wage in the US.

The US authorities can issue 65,000 H-1B new visas a year, with a possible extra 20,000 for people with master’s degrees.

The visas can also be extended upon expiration, with more than 309,000 approved for continuing employment in Fiscal Year 2022, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

About 70 percent of H-1B visa recipients are from India and another 10 percent are from China.

What have Musk and other defenders of H-1B said?

Musk has said that the “number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low” and has described the H-1B programme as critical “for those who want America to win”.

In a series of posts on X, which he also owns, Musk further pledged to “go to war on this issue”.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a former presidential candidate who has been picked to work alongside Musk on the government efficiency board, has criticised the programme as “badly broken”, but does not support removing them completely, instead saying that the visas should be granted on merit.

Ramaswamy antagonised the hardline anti-immigration faction of Trump’s supporters after he posted on social media on Thursday that tech companies hired immigrants because “American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long”.

“A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers,” he wrote.

What about Trump?

Trump weighed in on the issue for the first time on Saturday.

He told the New York Post: “I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B.”

“I have used it many times,” he said, referring to his own real estate ventures. “It’s a great programme.”

However, the statements were a departure for the president-elect.

In the past, he has criticised the visas as “very bad” and “unfair” to US workers and his administration sought to increase barriers for applicants during his first term.

Why does this matter?

The back-and-forth underscores a growing fault line between many of the earliest supporters of Trump and those like Musk who only embraced him in the 2024 election campaign. Many of the latter – like Musk – are associated with the tech industry, and are less prone to amplifying nativist rhetoric.

The infighting could inform the next four years of Trump’s presidency, with Musk already warning of a “MAGA civil war” over the issue.

Several of Trump’s most prominent supporters during his first term have joined in, with strategist Steve Bannon condemning “Big Tech oligarchs” who support the visas.