Vivek Ramaswamy is calling for sweeping reforms to the H-1B visa program, sparking a heated debate within the Republican Party and among supporters of former President Donald Trump.

Trump’s DOGE guy’s push for change puts him in line with tech leaders like Elon Musk, but puts him at odds with MAGA loyalists who argue that even high-skilled immigration puts American jobs at risk.

How does H-1B help skilled immigrants?

The H-1B visa program, designed to allow U.S. employers to hire foreign professionals with specialized skills, has been a point of contention for years. While it provides critical support to industries like technology, critics say the system displaces American workers, suppresses wages and exploits foreign workers.

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The American Immigration Council said the average salary for H-1B workers was $108,000 in 2021, well above the average U.S. worker salary of $45,760, underscoring its attractiveness to professionals.

Ramaswamy calls for a performance-based overhaul of H-1B

Ramaswamy has expressed his strong opposition to the current H-1B framework, calling it “bad for everyone involved.” He believes the program’s lottery-based selection process should be replaced with a merit-based system. “Yes, I have long said that the current H-1B system is badly broken and needs to be gutted. It shouldn’t be a lottery, but pure merit. It should not tie employees to just one company. The same principles that I prefer today,” he explained.

The program’s tendency to bind workers to a single employer amounts to “debt bondage.” To address this problem, the biotech entrepreneur advocates for reforms that emphasize real merit and enable greater mobility of skilled workers in the US labor market. Additionally, he advocates ending chain migration and argues that family members should not automatically receive the same immigration status as highly skilled immigrants.

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Interestingly, while running his company Roivant Sciences, Ramaswamy employed several foreign professionals under the program.