Bernie Sanders accuses Musk of seeking cheaper, not brainier, immigrant labor with H-1B visas
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The “cheaper the labor they hire, the more money the billionaires make,’ Sanders underscored. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders weighed in on the H-1B visa controversy Thursday, accusing Elon Musk of defending the program because the labor is “cheaper,” not brainier, than the American labor force, as the tech billionaire has argued.
![[Elon Musk has been defensive of the H-1B visa program, which Trump also announced support for over the weekend as an online debate about the visa program raged on]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/02/18/b2ad4b6469c3173ebfdfefeb8599a8e7Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzM1OTI3OTQ5-2.74429039.jpg)
The debate over the H-1B visa has divided MAGA over the past week. Musk has backed the visas for skilled foreign workers while Laura Loomer and Steve Bannon have bashed the program as not putting American workers first and carving them out of higher-paying jobs.
Sanders wrote on X Thursday: “Elon Musk is wrong. The main function of the H-1B visa program is not to hire ‘the best and the brightest,’ but rather to replace good-paying American jobs with low-wage indentured servants from abroad.”. The “cheaper the labor they hire, the more money the billionaires make,” Sanders added.
Sanders, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, called for “major reforms” to the H-1B program in a statement attached to his X post. After citing Census Bureau figures and other data, Sanders seemed to challenge Musk directly by asking about Tesla’s hiring practices: “If there is really a shortage of skilled tech workers in America, why did Tesla lay off over 7,500 American workers this year – including many software developers and engineers at its factory in Austin, Texas – while being approved to employ thousands of H-1B guest workers?”.
