Musk and Ramaswamy defend Silicon Valley’s foreign-born employees

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, co-chairs of President-elect Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, defend the tech industry’s reliance on foreign-born engineers as the incoming Trump administration prepares to crack down on immigration.

Musk and Ramaswamy both pointed to a shortage of engineers in the US.

“The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated is far too small in the US,” Musk wrote in a Wednesday post on his social platform X.

When another user suggested that the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX was denying opportunities to Americans, Musk argued that the poster’s understanding of the situation was “upside down and backwards.”

“OF COURSE my companies and I would prefer to hire Americans, and we do, because it’s MUCH easier than going through the incredibly painful and slow process for work visas,” the tech billionaire said. “However, there is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America.”

Ramaswamy also argued Thursday that there are too few competitive U.S.-born engineering candidates, suggesting it is a cultural issue.

“The reason top tech companies often hire first-generation, foreign-born engineers instead of ‘Native Americans’ is not because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy and false explanation),” he wrote on X. “A significant part of it comes down to the C word: culture.”

“For far too long, our American culture has revered mediocrity over excellence (at least since the ’90s and probably longer),” Ramaswamy said, adding, “A culture that values the prom queen over the math Olympian or the athlete over the valedictorian celebrates.” will not produce the best engineers.”

The debate appears to stem from Sriram Krishnan’s suggestion last month that Musk explore lifting caps on green cards for skilled immigrants. Krishnan’s comments resurfaced in recent days after he was named senior policy adviser on artificial intelligence (AI) by Trump.

Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and staunch Trump supporter, criticized Krishnan’s appointment on Monday, suggesting he wanted to lift green card restrictions so that foreign students “can come to the U.S. and take jobs that should be given to American STEM students.” “.

“It is alarming to see how many career leftists are now being appointed to the Trump administration when they hold views that are in direct contradiction to Trump’s America First agenda,” she added.

Conservative tech leaders quickly jumped to Krishnan’s defense. David Sacks, whom Trump picked as the White House’s AI and crypto czar, said the Andreessen Horowitz partner advocates for eliminating country-specific caps on green cards.

“Sriram still supports skill-based criteria for receiving a green card and does not make the program unlimited,” Sacks wrote on on the right side. Sriram is definitely not a ‘career leftist’!”

Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir Technologies, also argued that Krishnan is “America First.”

“For the United States to have the highest standards of living, generous government services and the strongest military, we must recruit the best and brightest and build the best companies,” Lonsdale said. “I am against more lower-end H1B immigrants; But let’s win the talent game.”

The discussion over Silicon Valley’s hiring practices comes as Trump prepares to implement an ambitious and controversial immigration strategy that promises mass deportations of undocumented immigrants and potentially naturalized citizens. Musk and Ramaswamy have both expressed support for Trump’s immigration plans.

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