MAGA Fractures Over H1B Visa Debate as Trump Signals Support for Skilled Migrants

“And I’m not just talking about engineers. I’m talking about people at all levels. We want competent people coming into our country,” said Trump on Wednesday.

Jason Miller, Elon Musk, Stephen Miller, Boris Esphteyn, Natalie Harp and Dan Scavino arrive at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland on November 13, 2024. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images.

WASHINGTON—A new fault line within the MAGA movement is deepening as the debate over H1B visas pits Elon Musk and Stephen Miller—two of President Donald Trump’s closest advisors—against each other.

On his first day back in the White House, Trump followed through on his campaign promises by signing sweeping executive orders to reverse Joe Biden’s migrant relief policies, expand immigration enforcement, and drastically cut legal immigration. Yet, one program remained untouched: the H1B visa, a staple of America’s high-skilled labor force.

"We need smart people coming into our country. We need a lot of people coming in. We're going to have jobs like we've never had before,” Trump said last month at Mar-a-Lago, leaving some of his staunchest MAGA supporters stunned.

“It’s a firefight,” said a source close to Stephen Miller, who lamented the enormous resources the tech industry spends on Washington lobbying. “Tech is terrible at lobbying but they hire every firm in town,” said the source. “All the firms are on retainer for tech. They’re all conflicted out.”

“It’s very simple: shut the fucking program down today, deport all of them, and give every single fucking job to American citizens,” Steve Bannon, Trump’s former strategist and Stephen Miller confidante, told me in an interview on Wednesday.

The H1B visa program, created in 1990, allows U.S. companies to sponsor foreign workers in specialized fields, ranging from IT and engineering to medicine and finance. The program caps annual visas at 65,000, with an additional 20,000 reserved for advanced degree holders from U.S. universities. While it offers a pathway to citizenship, critics like Miller and Bannon argue the program undermines American workers.

On Wednesday, Trump doubled down during a press conference in the Roosevelt Room, saying, “I like both sides of the argument, but I also like very competent people coming into our country — even if that involves training and helping other people that may not have the qualifications that they have. And I’m not just talking about engineers. I’m talking about people at all levels. We want competent people coming into our country.”

Laura Loomer vs. Elon Musk

The battle underscores the historically unprecedented role being played by Elon Musk, who is at once a senior administration official, the head of three companies that rely heavily on H1B labor, and the boss of X, where the public debate within the MAGA coalition is playing out. Musk has used the latter position to muzzle his opponents on the issue.

When Trump ally Laura Loomer and other hardline immigration opponents attacked Musk over his support for the H1B program, Musk responded by demonetizing and suppressing their accounts. Musk’s power over the X accounts of MAGA activists and operatives–and his willingness to use it in a vindictive way—gives him a major leg up in the debate. Since the suppression, Loomer’s account, for instance, has become largely invisible.

Loomer was among the first to pounce on the wild story of a recent shootout in Vermont, which left a German national and a Border Patrol agent dead, and an American woman hospitalized. The German is reported to have entered the United States on an H1B visa, a revelation Loomer has worked to elevate, along with a claim that his legal status had expired.

Yet with her and her allies suppressed on X, an anecdote that otherwise would have broken through has remained on the fringes. (Vermont’s Republican Gov. Phil Scott has raised questions as to the true immigration status of the late shooter.) Loomer told Drop Site she’s been frustrated to see allies of Trump buckle to Musk’s censorship. “Trump’s camp is silent over his supporters being silenced over criticism of H1B,” she said.

Rifts in DOGE

The fracture first became visible after Trump’s creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a platform for his allies to modernize government operations. He appointed Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the agency, alongside Katie Miller, a former Department of Homeland Security aide and the wife of Stephen Miller.

Two days after Katie’s appointment, far-right provocateur Laura Loomer attacked Sriram Krishnan, Trump’s White House AI advisor, comments he had made in support of the H1B visa program. Musk and Ramaswamy swiftly came to Krishnan’s defense.

"The reason I’m in America, along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla, and hundreds of other companies, is because of H1B,” Musk posted on X (formerly Twitter). Ramaswamy followed, writing, “Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long.”

Fractured Alliances

The clash over H1B visas has divided Trump’s inner circle. While Musk and Ramaswamy advocate for reform to address the green card backlog affecting hundreds of thousands of migrants, Stephen Miller and his allies are pushing for a moratorium on the program.

Meanwhile, Trump’s more conciliatory tone has alienated hardliners but resonated with CEOs. The six Big Tech leaders with front row seats at Trump’s inauguration Tuesday in the Capitol rotunda have all been vocal proponents of H1B reforms, including relief policies to help H1B migrants gain permanent residency.

On Capitol Hill, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham from South Carolina told me, “I think it [H1B] needs to be reformed. We need more legal immigration.” Similarly, Sen. John Kennedy, R-LA, said he supports measures to curb H1B abuse but views the program as fundamentally “sound.”

In the House, Democratic Reps. Ro Khanna of California and Pramila Jayapal of Washington, once an H1B recipient herself, are working on proposals to address the backlog and expand access to skilled migrant workers.

“If you’re really nationalist and you want to put America first, then you should support this program,” said Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-MI, a former visa recipient who now represents Detroit. “All this does is keep America’s edge on innovation, discovery, and technology, and grows our GDP.”

As long as Musk is willing to stand by the program and the migrant workforce it provides, H1B reform will continue to create cleavages in MAGA. Musk established himself as a serious campaign financier in the 2024 election cycle, spending at least $277 million to help elect Trump. The billionaire owner of Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink, and X, has virtually limitless resources to make life difficult for lawmakers who oppose his will in the House and Senate.

Musk tweeted last month that he would “go to war” for the H1B program. So far, it's a fight Musk appears to be winning.