Should US end H-1B programme? Know what Elon Musk thinks about Indian immigrants

Elon Musk said that shutting down the H1-B programme will be detrimental to America's technological advancement and that the US has benefited immensely from Indian talent. Speaking on the "WTF is" podcast hosted by online trading platform Zerodha's co-founder Nikhil Kamat. The Billionaire also defended President Donald Trump's anti immigration stance, saying that the policy stems from the "misuse" of H1-B visas.

“Yes, I think America has benefitted immensely from talented Indians who have come to America, Musk said in reply to Kamath's assertion that the US for decades attracted "really smart people" from around the world. However, it has become anti immigration to a certain extent in the recent past.

The Tesla CEO also dismissed demands of conservative groups calling for quashing the H1-B system completely, “I’m not in the school of thought that we should shut down the H-1B Program… that would actually be very bad, ”he said.

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These remarks come amid the ongoing crackdown on immigration by the Trump administration, the US President imposed stricter conditions on the H1B visa programme, making it difficult for job seekers to enter the United States. Beginning September 1, US employers seeking to hire foreign professionals in specialised occupations have to pay $1 lakh supplemental fee for new workers.

Commenting on the concerns of some Americans about Immigrants taking their jobs, the Tesla CEO said, “I don't know how real that is. My direct observation is that there's always a scarcity of talented people. So you know, from my standpoint, I'm like we have a lot of difficulty finding enough talented people to get these difficult tasks done, and so more talented people would be good.”

You are not a country without borders

The tech mogul, however, sharply criticised the Joe Biden administration for border polices, saying they lacked control and had a free-for-all approach to border controls.

"Under the Biden administration, it was basically a total free-for-all with no border controls. You know, unless you've got border controls, you're not a country. So, you had massive amounts of illegal immigration under Biden".

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"It actually had somewhat of a negative selection effect. So if there's a massive financial incentive to come to the US illegally and get all these government benefits, then you are going to necessarily create a diffusion gradient for people to come to the US. It's an incentive structure. And that obviously made no sense. Like, you got to have border controls. It's kind of ridiculous not to," the X owner added.