Trump Should Increase High-Skilled Immigration

Elon Musk’s and Vivek Ramaswamy’s support for increasing high-skilled immigration visas has stirred up a political storm within conservative circles. Although Trump has supported Musk’s and Ramaswamy’s comments, his words conflict with his first-term immigration policies. If his change in rhetoric is matched by a change in policy, it would help make America great.

Musk and Ramaswamy, whom Trump has tasked with improving government efficiency, both recently suggested that increasing the number of high-skill H-1B visas would improve the U.S. economy. Musk wrote on X that more H-1B visas are needed because “There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent. It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.”

Ramaswamy elaborated that American culture, which “has venerated mediocrity over excellence,” is why we do “not produce the best engineers” and need to import them via H-1B visas.

Their comments have upset some people on the MAGA right, including Laura Loomer, Mike Cernovich, and Ann Coulter. Coulter claimed that “American workers can leave a company. Imported H-1B workers can’t. Tech wants indentured servants, not ‘high-skilled’ workers.” 

When President Trump was asked about the H-1B visas, he responded, “I’ve always liked the visas. I have always been in favor of the visas. ” He added, “I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program.”

He went even further while campaigning last June when he proclaimed on a podcast, “What I want to do and what I will do is, you graduate from a college, I think you should get automatically, as part of your diploma, a Green Card to be able to stay in this country.”

However, President Trump’s first-term immigration policies should make us skeptical. The rejection rate for initial H-1B applications rose from a historical norm of around 2 percent to 24 and 21 percent in 2018 and 2019 before the pandemic. Then he suspended the entry of all temporary visa holders, including H-1Bs, in June 2020.

If he follows through on his new pro-high-skilled immigration rhetoric, it would be a major boost for the U.S. economy. Musk is correct to claim that U.S. companies that import foreign engineers improve their companies in the same way that NBA teams do when they import foreign athletes like Serbian-born MVP Nikola Jokic. But unlike in the NBA, with a fixed 82 games to win or lose, our economy is not zero-sum. Importing engineers makes companies more productive and spurs competition that enlarges the overall economy.

High-skilled immigrants don’t just bring talent to fuel productivity in existing companies. They also found companies that employ and serve the needs of millions of Americans. Musk himself once held an H-1B visa, and he is not alone. Forty-five percent of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or children of immigrants. If a country had the combined output of these companies, it would have the third highest GDP in the world. Immigrants also found small and midsized companies at a high rate. Approximately 3.2 million immigrants, roughly 15 percent of the foreign-born population in the United States, run their own businesses. 

Conservatives often oppose immigration because they fear criminality or the tax burden but these concerns don’t apply to high-skilled immigrants. Highly educated immigrants rarely commit crimes, and according to the National Academy of Sciences, immigrants with graduate degrees generate approximately $1 million more in tax revenue than they consume in government services over their lifetimes.

President Trump will likely deliver on his campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration, but he’d be wise to pair that crackdown with increased paths to legal immigration. Significantly expanding high-skilled immigration would help him deliver on his campaign promise to make the American economy great again.

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