The CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, has advocated for increased legal entry of skilled workers while strongly opposing irregular immigration.
His comments came after expressing his views on the United States immigration debate, VisaGuide.World reports.
While it is trivial to enter the United States illegally, it is insanely difficult for legal immigrants to move to the United States. This is madness! We should shut down illegal immigration and greatly increase legal immigration.
Musk responded to a post by Aaron Levie, CEO of Box, on social media. The post shared data related to the increasing number of H-1B visa applicants in the past two decades.
The H-1B visa is a temporary work visa that gives US employers the opportunity to hire highly qualified workers for speciality work. The employer must have an open job position in order to hire temporary workers from other countries, provided they cannot find American employees to complete the work.
Congress set a cap of 85,000 H-1B visas each year; of them, 65,000 are issued under the standard cap, and 20,000 are issued under the US advanced degree exemption, which is known as the master’s cap.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has often been called to apply new changes to the regulations for the H-1B visa program.
In October last year, DHS provided a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in order to help modernize the H-1B work visa program.
Among the changes proposed by the United States Department of Homeland Security also included streamlining eligibility requirements, improving program efficiency, providing greater benefits and flexibilities for workers and employers and strengthening integrity measures.
In addition, last year, an Indian-descent Democratic lawmaker, Raja Krishnamoorthi, introduced legislation proposing to increase the annual H-1B visa limit from 65,000 to a total of 130,000.
In addition to urging for increased legal entry of skilled workers, Musk also called on the US government to put an end to irregular migration.
The X CEO also criticized the Biden administration, stressing that they aren’t doing sufficient to halt irregular immigration into the United States, according to a report from the Economic Times.
At this point, there is no question that this administration is actively facilitating illegal immigration. The numbers speak for themselves.
In recent months, irregular immigration has been among the main concerns in the US, especially in cities like New York, in which a large number of migrants arrive without housing or job opportunities.
Besides, in December, the US border authorities struggled to manage the situation, with nearly 11,0000 apprehensions in a day, a number considered by some officials close to or at a record high.