Washington, Nov 30 (LatestNewsX)—Tesla CEO Elon Musk took a stand on the H‑1B visa scheme, saying the U.S. economy has “benefited immensely” from Indian immigrants, a point he made in a chat with Zerodha co‑founder Nikhil Kamath. The remarks came during the “WTF is?” podcast that dropped on Sunday, where Musk stressed that America still needs highly skilled workers from India more than ever, while also calling out outsourcing firms that had exploited the visa system.
“America has been an immense beneficiary of talent from India,” Musk said, noting that his companies keep struggling to fill specialized roles because “there’s always a scarcity of talented people.”
He defended the H‑1B programme as a vital pipeline for global talent but also admitted there are flaws. He accused “some of the outsourcing companies (that) have kind of gamed the system,” urging reforms to “stop the gaming of the system” rather than shutting the programme down.
“I’m absolutely not in the school of thought that we should shut down the H‑1B programme,” he added, pushing back on calls from parts of the political right.
Connecting wider immigration debates to past policy missteps, Musk described the previous administration’s approach as “a total free for all, with like no border controls,” saying it had encouraged illegal migration and a “negative selection effect.” “Unless you’ve got border controls, you’re not a country,” he said.
His comments arrive at a tense moment for the H‑1B programme during President Donald Trump’s second term, when the administration has tightened oversight while still recognizing that skilled foreign talent is essential. The H‑1B visa, a program set up under the 1990 Immigration Act, allows U.S. employers to hire foreign specialists. Congress caps the program at 65,000 visas a year. Indians dominate the system: they secured 71 percent of all H‑1B approvals in 2024, followed by Chinese nationals at 12 percent. The U.S. approved almost 400,000 H‑1B applications that year, including renewals outside the cap.
In the Trump administration’s second term, enforcement has intensified. In September, the president announced a new $100,000 fee on fresh H‑1B petitions filed after September 21, 2025, targeting what the administration calls “loopholes” that let employers “undercut American workers.” The fee doesn’t apply to renewals, existing visa holders, or 2025 lottery winners.
A Department of Homeland Security update, expected in December, will revisit cap exemptions, increase scrutiny of violators, and tighten third‑party worksite rules to “improve programme integrity.”
Even with a hardline stance, Trump has often highlighted the economic value of the visas. In a November 11 Fox News interview, he defended the H‑1B visa against critics in his base: “You do also have to bring in talent… We’re not going to be successful if we don’t allow people who invest billions… to bring a lot of their people from their country.” He also noted workforce gaps, adding, “You can’t take people off an unemployment line and say, ‘I’m going to put you into a factory.’”
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