A former senior govt who performed a key function in Twitter’s transition and rebranding to ‘X’ following Elon Musk’s acquisition has criticised the steep $100,000 price launched by former President Donald Trump on H-1B visas, which predominantly have an effect on Indian and different tech staff employed within the US.
Esther Crawford, who was director of product administration at Twitter/X, additionally condemned the widespread anti-immigrant sentiment prevalent amongst many Individuals.
She highlighted that the platform’s survival was largely due to engineers from India and China on H-1B visas. “They stayed after the acquisition, labored lengthy hours and solved brutally advanced issues alongside American colleagues,” she mentioned in a put up on X.
“When posting anti-immigrant takes, bear in mind: they’re the explanation you’ll be able to tweet in any respect,” she added.
Indians make up over 70% of the roughly 400,000 present H-1B visa holders, with Chinese language nationals accounting for about 12%.
Concerning Elon Musk’s stance on the H-1B programme, he has remained silent for the reason that announcement of the excessive price on new purposes. Nevertheless, based mostly on his previous feedback, he’s unlikely to strongly oppose it regardless of his sophisticated historical past with former President Trump.
Musk has beforehand supported the H-1B visa scheme however advocated for growing its price, arguing the system was “damaged.” This view aligns with Trump’s reasoning that the programme is commonly exploited and needs to be reserved for genuinely extremely expert staff.
The hefty one-time price is predicted to severely influence the programme within the medium to long run, provided that the median annual wage of H-1B holders is decrease than $100,000. Consequently, US corporations could also be discouraged from hiring international staff underneath this scheme.
Alternatively, some corporations may relocate these jobs abroad. In that case, a proposed measure often known as the HIRE Act, which might impose vital taxes on funds made to corporations outsourcing jobs overseas, could possibly be carried out if permitted.