While you’ve been enjoying your Christmas holiday, there’s been a civil war raging inside MAGA Land. It’s worth paying attention to because it has ramifications for the Trump administration—and the future of the country.
On one level the battle is about the role of immigration—legal and illegal. The focus has specifically been on a program that offers so-called H-1B visas, which proponents, including Elon Musk, insist are important for helping build the American economy, and detractors say take away jobs from U.S. citizens. (Read my colleague Joe Nocera on that.)
But the most high-stakes aspect of this fight doesn’t have to do with the minutiae of U.S. immigration policy, but instead involves national identity—and whether an influx of non-white non-Europeans should be allowed to change the face of America.
All of this came into focus on December 23, when Sriram Krishnan was nominated by president-elect Donald Trump as senior policy adviser for artificial intelligence. Given his distinguished background as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and former executive at companies like Microsoft, Twitter, and Meta, he seems like a perfect fit for the role.
But not everyone thought so. What provoked the ire of some America First proponents is Krishnan’s outspoken support for removing country-specific caps on green cards, which he says would “unlock” the potential of skilled immigration. The present system means no country can receive more than seven percent of the total estimated 140,000 employment-based green cards per year—meaning people from large countries such as India and China face long backlogs compared to those from smaller nations.