The slogan “America First” has so far only worked with American capitalism, which needs cheap labor to compete.
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One of President Trump’s campaign promises was to deport immigrants. From El Paso, Lauren Villagran explains the deportation centers.
It’s fun to watch right-wingers turn on each other over high-skilled worker visas and expose their hypocrisy on immigration.
The fracas involves Trump operative Vivek Ramaswamy and his stance on America’s culture of “mediocrity” that leads to dependence on foreign workers for high technology.
The most prominent MAGA warriors — including Elon Musk, Laura Loomer, and former UN ambassador and former Trump rival Nikki Haley — entered the fray with astonishing speed, drawing the line between their warring camps.
“A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the Math Olympiad champion, or the athlete over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.” Ramaswamy wrote In a lengthy post on X, formerly Twitter, this week.
Vivek Ramaswamy is in a fight over H1-B visas
Billionaire Musk, who owns X, Tesla, and SpaceX, chimed inSaying that “the number of people who are highly talented, highly motivated engineers in the United States is too low” to meet demand.
“Think of it like a professional sports team: If you want your team to win a championship, you need to recruit the best talent wherever they are,” he wrote.
“There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture.” Haley snapped againHe added: “We must invest and prioritize Americans, not foreign workers.”
Specifically, they are fighting over H1-B visas, which the United States issues on a lottery basis to highly skilled foreigners and other people in high demand in Silicon Valley and across America.
If anyone knew the massive need for engineers and such, it would be Musk. He has built an enviable fortune through high-tech talent that undoubtedly includes foreigners.
Will Elon Musk or immigration hardliners win?
The divide over H1-B visas exposes the deep hypocrisy of MAGA’s “America First” slogan. It exposes the harsh reality of the country’s insatiable capitalism, which needs cheap labor to produce products quickly and on a large scale.
The MAGA fight shows that putting “America First” into practice is much more complex than simply launching a political slogan to incite voters against foreigners.
Who will Donald Trump listen to when he returns to the White House?
Will he listen to the hardliners who want to deport everyone here illegally and reduce worker visas to focus only on Americans?
Or will he listen to Musk’s camp instead, which seems to understand that the American model of capitalism cannot survive without foreign workers?
The outcome is easy to predict. Trump is not stupid, and in the end, he will not do anything to harm his billionaire friends who depend on foreign workers.
My guess is that Trump will be selectively deported
This MAGA brawl crystallized for me Trump’s immigration strategy.
He will almost certainly follow through on his promise of mass deportation, but I think he will do so selectively, targeting the most vulnerable in Republican-dominated Texas to show his toughness, and in heavily Democratic states to punish them.
In the process, Trump will make his friends in the prison industry richer, because large-scale deportations unfortunately require new detention centers.
But I’m starting to think he’ll avoid some industries, like technology, agriculture, and others that can’t survive without foreigners, whether they’re legal or not.
Otherwise, America’s self-imposed decline will accelerate to the point of no return, which will please China and other countries that invest in and train their people.
Perhaps the best thing some of us can do is sit back and watch MAGA chew itself up over the next four years.
Elvia Diaz is the editorial page editor for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Call her at 602-444-8606 or elvia.diaz@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, (formerly Twitter), @elviadiaz1.
