Immigration Flare-Up Fractures MAGA World

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Earlier this week the President-Elect, a boisterous supporter of the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, announced that an Indian-American by the name of Sriram Krishnan would be the Artificial Intelligence (AI) adviser for the White House in his administration.  No sooner had that pronouncement left the elderly politician's lips than Laura Loomer, a right-wing journalist and close associate of the in-coming President, criticized the move, citing concerns over "foreign influence" in government.  Others of the nativist American stripe quickly joined Loomer's dissent.

The attitude from the extreme MAGA wing of the Republican Party did not sit well with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the two men that the President-Elect has named to head his new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) - and who will certainly have a great deal of "influence" in the new administration themselves.   Musk, a native of South Africa, is now a naturalized US citizen and Ramaswamy was born in the United States to Indian nationals who were not US citizens at the time of his birth and thus has "birthright" citizenship as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.  

Both men, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, took to social media to defend the temporary use of H-1B visas for skilled workers, particularly in the tech industry, for critical, hard-to-fill positions.  But right-wing critics weren't going to let that go unchallenged.  Journalist Ann Coulter countered that what the tech companies were really seeking was cheap foreign labor and that the recipients of the H-1B visas were little more than "indentured servants."   There were also posted arguments that the tech companies should be hiring American labor and train them to do the tech jobs.

Elon Musk, a man who does not take well to being challenged, referred to the MAGA extremists who were opposing the immigration of tech labor, particularly from India, as  "contemptible fools."   However, he almost seemed to be strengthening Ann Coulter's argument as he elaborated in a tweet yesterday:

"Investing in Americans is actually hard.  Really hard.  It costs money and time and effort to make a person productive.  It's a short term loss.  It's much easier to bring in skilled workers who might not do quite as good a job, but will work for a fraction of the cost and be happy just to be here."

The immigration controversy between the extreme MAGAts and the DOGE bros is still raging today.  Will the Republican Party modify its intolerance and welcome, or at least tolerate, immigrants who help to boost some segments of the economy, or will they be firm in their resolve to drive and bar diversity from our shores?

At some point Big Daddy is going to have to waddle in and take charge.