Opinion | H-1B visa debate in the US reveals a policy dilemma for Trump

Tensions within the president-elect’s coalition over high-skilled immigration are symptomatic of larger problems in the US economy

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Published: 5:30am, 6 Jan 2025Updated: 11:00am, 6 Jan 2025

Last month, a digital battle erupted on X (formerly Twitter), splitting US president-elect Donald Trump supporters into two camps over immigration. One faction is calling for strict controls on all immigration while the other advocates for exceptions, particularly for highly skilled technical workers.

The debate centred around the coveted visa for skilled workers known as the H-1B. The unlikely target of anger: Silicon Valley’s Indian engineers.

Along with East Asians, Indians have long been hailed as a model minority in the United States. Many of them are highly skilled, work hard, stay out of trouble and integrate into American society. Nonetheless, they have become a target for the American far-right, raising questions about the US’ ambitions to maintain its superpower status.

In the 1960s, the US began loosening immigration laws, partly to attract talent from across the world. This process led to the entry of significant numbers of Indian scientists, doctors and eventually software engineers.

Despite being only 1 per cent of the population of the US, residents of Indian origin were over-represented in the tech industry by 2021, comprising about 6 per cent of Silicon Valley’s workforce. Indeed, Indian Americans are also at the helm of several major software companies with Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft being the most prominent example.

Securing the H-1B visa is the legal pathway for many Indians coming into the US. A total of 85,000 are given out every year. More than 70 per cent of them have been issued to Indian nationals while 12 per cent have been issued to applicants from China.