REPORT: Tesla More Than Doubled H-1B Visa Workforce

Last week, Trump’s new buddy, Elon Musk, created outrage on social media over his support of the H-1B program.

Trump came out to support Musk’s position even though Trump had publicly called out the program when he was in office, but this picture is getting cleared up rather significantly.

Trump and the H-1B/H-2B Visa Programs

After Elon Musk made his comments, Donald Trump supported his position. When Trump was asked why he suddenly changed his opinion of the H-1B program, Trump stated, "I didn't change my mind on H-1B visas. I've always felt we have to have the most competent people in our country. We need a lot of people coming in. We're going to have jobs like never before.” That, however, was a lie… of sorts.

You see, in October 2020, just prior to the election, Trump introduced sweeping changes to the H-1B visa program after Trump called it “unfair” to American workers. This, however, was posturing by Trump because he knew the changes would bleed over to the next administration if he lost the election, and he also had to know it would die there.

At the time, the Trump administration stated, “With this proposed rule, the Trump administration is continuing to deliver on its promise to protect the American worker while strengthening the economy. The H-1B program is often exploited and abused by U.S. employers, and their U.S. clients, primarily seeking to hire foreign workers and pay lower wages.

“The current use of random selection to allocate H-1B visas makes it harder for businesses to plan their hiring, fails to leverage the H-1B program to truly compete for the world’s best and brightest, and hurts American workers by bringing in relatively lower-paid foreign labor at the expense of the American workforce.”

Looking into Trump’s business practices, the former and future president has made ample use of the program as it was at the time, having numerous executives in his organization that are currently working under the H-1B program, as well as making use of the H-2B program for temporary workers. In fact, between 2016 and 2017, Trump reportedly posted 144 open positions for seasonal workers at his properties, and 143 of them went to H-2B workers, meaning all but one of those jobs were outsourced to foreigners, likely at a far lower wage than American workers would have required.

Trump’s Not Alone

I have been warning people about Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy from the outset. While I do not like or trust Ramaswamy, I don’t really have a problem with Musk, but if he is buddying up to Trump, you better believe he has an agenda.

When Musk expressed his support for the H-1B program, it became clear that was his focus, and for good reason. It turns out that his company, Tesla, is stacked with H-1B program workers, so much so, in fact, that it reportedly doubled the U.S. workforce using the program.

A National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) report found, “Tesla, led by Elon Musk, showed a significant increase in H-1B approved petitions, rising to 16th on the list of most approved H-1B petitions for initial employment in FY 2024 after not appearing in the top 25 among employers in previous years. Tesla had 742 approved H1B petitions for initial employment in FY 2024, more than double its total of 328 in FY 2023 and 337 in FY 2022. Tesla also had 1,025 H-1B petitions for continuing employment (primarily extensions for existing employees) approved in FY 2024.”

It gets significantly worse for Musk, as those H-1B workers replaced American workers. Electrek.com reported, “Current and former Tesla employees said that many of the laid-off US workers were replaced by foreign workers using H-1B visas. These claims are backed by U.S. Department of Labor data, which show that Tesla requested over 2,000 H-1B visas during the time it was laying off U.S. workers.”

Sanders Calls Out Musk

Of all people, it was Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) who called out Musk on the program, stating, “Not only have corporations exported millions of blue-collar manufacturing jobs to China, Mexico, and other low-wage countries, they are now importing hundreds of thousands of low-paid guest workers from abroad to fill the white-collar technology jobs that are available.”

Trump’s top supporters on social media have suddenly swung in favor of the H-1B program, which is just baffling to me. And to be clear, I don’t necessarily have a problem with the program if an American cannot fill the job first. However, this program appears to be more about getting cheap labor, not necessarily the best and brightest for the job. Employers are taking advantage of the program by luring in workers at a reduced salary for the lure of getting an American green card and the hopes of citizenship in the future.

Like any businessman, Musk is doing what is best for his bottom line, but that bottom line also impacts American workers. And no, I refuse to let Trump off the hook here because he is outright lying to the American people about his position. If there is not someone here who can fill the position, by all means, use the program, but they must be paid the same wage, not a discounted employee, so you can trim your bottom line, which is what both Musk and Trump were doing utilizing these visa programs.