Trump‘s H-1B visa trial: Why excellence cannot be arrested in boundaries   

USA owes its clear technological global leadership to the competitive and highly skilled human resource sourced from India and other countries, observes former diplomat Anil Trigunayat.

By Anil Trigunayat 

Immigration has always been an issue in the US domestic  politics which has had external ramifications. Ironically USA is a land of immigrants who dreamt big and made it big and created an exceptional  landscape by contributing to the greatness of the US of A.

But over time with the emergence of new economic and geo economic rivals in China and India which excelled in the sheer weight of capability, capacity and talented human resource, this has become hot potato.

Eventually it is a given that countries  like India which has spawning world class talent will be the provider of it as well. USA owes its clear technological global leadership to the competitive and highly skilled human resource sourced from India and other countries. The legal immigration is a normal occurrence dependent on the fundamental principle of demand and supply. H1B visas are a legal instrument for facilitating this.

President Donald Trump in his first term had greatly focussed on reducing the immigration in a transactional style. He asked the US MNCs to relocate back to the US to create jobs locally in order to address the unemployment issue especially in the white mid-west belt. Sino-US trade war, even in the Biden Administration, led to Chips Act and various other laws and provisions trying to restrict the key supply chains to and from China.

However, illegal immigration is indeed an issue which needs to be addressed and he wanted to even create a huge wall with their southern border with Mexico. In his second Presidential avatar, Trump wants to send millions of illegal immigrants back to their countries with the stroke of his pen — the first thing on January 20. This is already causing tremendous fear and uncertainty.

How about US agriculture which is also largely dependent on imported labour will cope up is a question that will surely dog the minds of some in the country.  Trump even wished to stop the provision of citizenship to the children born on the US soil irrespective of the citizenship status of their parents. This would impact a large number of well entrenched US citizens. But this will require constitutional amendment which may not be that easy.

Trump also wants to cut down on foreign workforce apparently to create opportunities for the Americans at home again which is not easy from the cost efficiency and business competitive perspective since it belies the theory of competitive and comparative advantage among nations. Any hasty and short-term populistic solutions have the ingrained capability of cutting the nose to spite the face. Currently the MAGA (Make America Great Again) hardliners are unwilling to give in to the tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Ramaswamy in Trump’s team.

In 2017, in his first term also President Trump signed an executive order that increased scrutiny of H-1B visa applications. The order sought to enhance fraud detection within the scheme. Rejection rates hit an all-time high under the first Trump administration, reaching 24% in the 2018 fiscal year, compared with rejection rates of between 5-8% under the Obama administration and between 2-4% under President Biden. Numbers remained steady during Biden Administration.

This time around, Trump in an interview, even claimed “I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times.”  Perhaps he meant H2B Visas) given the nature of his businesses. Since President Trump, as a businessman, understood the importance of efficiency and competitiveness, he recognised the value of bringing in highly qualified, technically skilled professionals from India and other countries under the H1B program, which has a rigorous application process.

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His DOGE ( Department of Government Efficiency) businessman friend Elon Musk, charged with rationalising the hefty and bulky bureaucracy and defanging the deep state,  saw the rationale of competitive workforce to maintain the technological edge and appreciates the logic to continue with that stream uninterrupted by political expediency. But the powerful MAGA adherents challenged and opposed this premise since Trump had thrown his weight behind Elon Musk in this quest.

The opposition to revised approach of Trump and Musk and consequent furore made the duo to look for better and necessarily bitter choice, Hence Musk admitted to the need for reform of the H1B visa scheme so that only the most needed vacancies are filled by the high quality foreign professionals while plugging the routine low end jobs in the value chain. Further it is considered imperative to invest in development of American expertise.

Trump has made several statements in the past in the run up to elections with regard to skilled immigration calling it ‘very bad’ . But off late he has begun to see good reason perhaps his and his businessmen team see the merit in it for the benefit of MAGA — Make America Great Again or MAWA — Make America Work Again . That can be done with whatever help and global resource he could get even though MAGA hardliners and protagonists like Steve Banon vociferously contend his arguments and intent.

As of now Trump sees reason and hence reaffirmed that “I didn’t change my mind. I always felt we have to have the most competent people in our country,” Stressing that the US needs “competent and smart” people, he said, “We need a lot of people coming in. We’re going to have jobs like we’ve never had before.”

 On the other hand even the Indian origin politicians have also engaged in the war of words on this issue. When Vivek Ramaswamy wrote on social media, “American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence,” which prompted former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and a child of immigrants to retort, “There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture.” Indian techies and professionals have generally been the largest beneficiaries of this programme and any restrictions on the access and movement of professionals and service providers have often been a G2G (government to government) talking point. This has also led to India pursuing Migration and Mobility Agreements with several western countries, institutionalising smoother movement of Indian professionals and workforce .

What remains to be seen is the way this issue is going to be handled whether  by sheer revanchism or innovative ideas that would benefit the USA while addressing the domestic content requirement and find an acceptable balance  to assuage the MAGA behemoth. One needs to remember that excellence can not be arrested in boundaries for it to become a global good.

—The author, Amb. Anil Trigunayat, is a former Indian Ambassador to Jordan, Libya and Malta, and currently heads the West Asia Experts Group at Vivekananda International Foundation. Views expressed are personal.