(RNS) — Not long ago, Elon Musk was not alone among U.S. business leaders in arguing that the H-1B visa program — aimed at allowing highly skilled foreign specialists to work in the United States, most often in tech — was like drafting foreign basketball wizards to play on American teams. “This is like bringing in the Jokic’s or Wemby’s of the world to help your whole team (which is mostly Americans!) win the NBA,” Musk wrote on X in December.
Some who see immigrants as a threat have also promoted the idea that Indian immigrants are all elite workers.
In a January interview, Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson told Religion News Service that H-1B workers will “rise to the top in the tech industry, many of them, which is a highly influential industry. Consequently, what you’re doing is you’re bringing in people who are not acculturated to the culture of the United States, and putting them in a position of shaping that culture.”
Many prominent Indian Americans have helped paint this profile of the model immigrant, pointing to the outsized contribution Indian immigrants make to the economy, as well as culture and politics. Even President Donald Trump in his first term celebrated the “numerous Americans of …