Maga Braces For More Fights Over Legal Immigration

Immigration hawks believe they won an important first battle in their skirmish with billionaire Elon Musk over specialty foreign worker visas. But they remain privately worried about their ability to retain the upper hand in the broader war within the GOP given the rising influence of tech moguls as Donald Trump returns to the White House.

The bitter clash that spilled out in public over the holidays between MAGA activists who favor tighter restrictions on a program designed to attract high-skilled immigrant workers and corporate leaders who rely on their labor ended with Musk conceding in a post on X that the H-1B visa program he previously extolled “is broken and needs major reform.”

But the spat has groups that push for cuts to legal immigration lowering their expectations for the incoming Republican trifecta as the party’s attempt to build a bigger tent brings new ideological divisions. The “America First” camp now has to face off against both the traditional business sector of the GOP that favors cheap labor but also the tech industry that only recently has aligned with Republicans.

“You’ve got to understand, even if you're the most MAGA of MAGA people, these guys helped Trump get elected, and he owes them,” Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that pushes for less legal immigration, said of Musk and his ilk. “I personally think immigration should be reduced dramatically, but you’ve got to operate in reality, and the H-1B program isn't going anywhere, if only because Congress would have to do something on it, and Congress can't even pass a budget.”

It’s an acknowledgement that underscores an inherent tension within this new big-tent GOP between the populist base and longstanding corporate interests, now boosted by high-profile tech entrepreneurs like Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy. It’s one of the biggest policy hurdles facing the incoming Trump administration — and at least for now, the corporate interests appear to be winning. But even as immigration restriction activists concede that a significant overhaul of the H-1B program, a visa designed for workers in skilled or specialty occupations, by Congress is unlikely, they are counting on allies in the federal government to make administrative changes that curb legal as well as illegal immigration.

Krikorian told POLITICO that as many as three of his staffers will soon be working for the Trump administration, a sign of the kind of influence groups that push for less legal immigration will have over the next four years. Krikorian declined to name them, though one — CIS’ director of investigations Jon Feere — is already serving on Trump’s “landing team,” the cadre of officials tasked with getting the new administration up to speed ahead of inauguration day, at the Department of Homeland Security. Feere did not respond to a request for comment.

Jack Posobiec, an influential MAGA podcaster critical of the H-1B program, expects Trump to reinstate executive orders from his first term — some of which were blocked by courts for procedural violations — that aimed to make it more difficult for U.S. companies to hire foreign workers and raise the wages they must be paid.

“I would not be surprised to see them return,” he said.

A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), a close Trump ally, predicted that changes to the H-1B visa program won’t be a priority for the GOP majority this year.

“It may get into a package this year or not, who knows,” he said of a potential H-1B visa overhaul. “The number-one focus we have is going to be on actually securing the nation's borders, repatriation of illegal immigrants to their home countries, getting our economy on track."

Other Republicans, including Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), downplayed the GOP rift over the issue and argued that the pro-business wing of the party far outnumbers the immigration restriction advocates. "We’ve got President Trump, Elon Musk, myself and just about every other Republican on one side, and, I think, just a handful of people on the other," he said.

Similar divisions are roiling the Democratic Party as it attempts to chart a path forward in the wake of Kamala Harris’ November loss and balance its more elite and corporate interests with its longtime base of racially diverse working-class voters who have drifted to the right.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Thursday had a rare moment of alignment with the MAGA movement when he blasted the H-1B visa program and argued that it is being used “not to hire ‘the best and the brightest,’ but rather to replace good-paying American jobs with low-wage indentured servants from abroad.”

Though Sanders has voiced similar critiques in the past, some immigration restrictionists on the right saw his comments as a sign of a larger shift in the zeitgeist. Steve Bannon, the former top Trump aide, told POLITICO they underscored “the birth of a new politics.”

Labor groups also see the recent flareup as a sign there may be an opening — and bipartisan support — for H-1B reforms under the new administration. But they worry that narrow window may close if Trump continues to side with those who want to leave the program untouched or expand it.

“I actually met with him personally on this issue in 2020…and Trump basically said, ‘Americans need American jobs first,’” said IFPTE Secretary-Treasurer Gay Henson, who represents tens of thousands of engineers. “And what's confusing to me is it sounds like now he's listening to tech billionaires and tech employers on how the visa program ought to work, and saying the opposite of what he was thinking then.”

The H-1B visa program has long been a flashpoint in both the Republican and Democratic parties, with politicians either touting the program for expanding the skilled labor pool and encouraging innovation in the U.S. or criticizing it for taking high-value jobs away from American workers.

Federal agencies have repeatedly warned of high levels of fraud and abuse in the programs, including companies trying to game its lottery system by requesting more workers than they need. And a 2023 poll by Gallup that found that 73 percent of Republicans wanted overall immigration levels decreased, while a Chicago Council on Global Affairs survey in September 2022 that found that two-thirds of Republicans who expressed a favorable view of Trump wanted to see legal immigration reduced.

Groups that push for less legal immigration and stricter enforcement of immigration laws think they sent an effective shot across the bow over the holidays by generating a fierce online backlash to Musk and Ramaswamy’s calls for expanding the H-1B program.

“They didn't appreciate how intensely felt this concern for immigration was among Trump's voter base,” Krikorian said. “The tech people do not understand the politics of this issue. And over Christmas week, they got a lesson. And Trump himself, I think, got a lesson.”

But Trump came out in apparent support of the H-1B program in the wake of the skirmish, saying that the country needs “smart people” and that he has many people with such visas working at his properties, calling it a “great program,” though he appears to lean primarily on a different group of immigrants, unskilled workers with H-2B visas. It represented a significant reversal for the president-elect, who has previously called the program “unfair” and “very bad” for American workers.

In his first term, Trump tried to restrict the H-1B visas, with his top adviser Stephen Miller pushing behind the scenes to limit them. Trump named Miller as his incoming deputy chief of staff for policy — one of several immigration hawks set to hold prominent roles in the new administration. Vice President-elect JD Vance has also been critical of H-1B visas.

Still, immigration restrictionist groups like the Federation for American Immigration Reform fear those voices may be drowned out by Musk and other tech moguls who have Trump’s ear.

“If they have an outsized influence, you have a case of the fox guarding the hen house,” said Ira Mehlman, the media director for FAIR. “Look, these are vital industries. We should listen to what they have to say. But there's also the concerns of American workers that need to be taken into account.”

Brakkton Booker contributed reporting.