Trump’s immigrant plans
would have barred Musk from admission to the US
President
Trump on Tuesday night tweeted his support for billionaire engineer and
entrepreneur Elon Musk, whose aerospace company, SpaceX, had test-launched
the Falcon Heavy lift rocket from the Kennedy
Space Center in Florida earlier in the day. Trump claimed that the rocket, which is eventually intended to carry payloads of up to 70 tons into low-earth orbit, was proof of “American ingenuity at its best.”
“Congratulations
@ElonMusk and @SpaceX on the successful #FalconHeavy launch,” Trump tweeted.
“This achievement, along with @NASA’s commercial and international partners,
continues to show American ingenuity at its best!”
Musk,
of course, is not only an American innovator, but a South African immigrant who came to the United States in 1992.
He
obtained an H1-B visa shortly after graduating from the
University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School with degrees in physics and
economics, respectively, allowing him to pursue his business aspirations in
various energy and aerospace fields.
Both
of those things might otherwise rankle Trump, who has expressed his desire to
limit immigration from several African nations and whose administration is
reportedly considering overhauling the H1-B visa program, which awards visas to
highly skilled workers.
Trump has previously criticized the United States’ decision to allow immigrants from African countries. During a bipartisan meeting with lawmakers in early January, the president came under fire after calling those nations “shithole countries” and wondering aloud why the United States was not seeking more immigrants from places like Norway instead.
“Why
are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” he asked
before suggesting that the United States remove immigrants from poorer nations
like Haiti as well.
Immigrants
like Musk are also targeted under Trump’s reported H1-B proposal, which directs
agents to more closely inspect the documentation of both new and returning
applicants.
Such increased vetting is already slowing immigration and throwing up roadblocks for workers seeking to renew their documentation, advocates say. In some cases, authorities are requesting pages-worth of background information before considering them for the visa.
Such increased vetting is already slowing immigration and throwing up roadblocks for workers seeking to renew their documentation, advocates say. In some cases, authorities are requesting pages-worth of background information before considering them for the visa.
“It’s
not unusual in the world of immigration to get a request for evidence, but this
one is being sent to everyone who applies,” William Brah, director of the
Venture Development Center at University of Massachusetts Boston, told The Boston Globe in December. “We’re not
sure what the rationale is other than slowing down immigration.”
Musk
became an American citizen in 2002, taking his oath of citizenship in Pomona, California.
After Trump took office in January 2017, Musk — who was originally appointed to both Trump’s policy and manufacturing councils — began lobbying on behalf of immigrants who would be affected by the president’s policies.
After Trump took office in January 2017, Musk — who was originally appointed to both Trump’s policy and manufacturing councils — began lobbying on behalf of immigrants who would be affected by the president’s policies.
When
the president signed an executive order on January 27 limiting
refugees from entering the United States and banning travelers from several
Muslim-majority nations, Musk tweeted that the ban was “not the best way to
address the country’s challenges.”
“Many
people negatively affected by this policy are strong supporters of the US,” he
wrote. “They’ve done right, not wrong & don’t deserve to be rejected.”
One
day later, he tweeted about the ban again, saying that he would seek “advisory council consensus” on the issue and
present those arguments to the president.
“…There
is no possibility of retraction, but there is possibility of modification,”
he tweeted, responding to a Twitter user who argued
that the executive order was unlikely to be rescinded. “It’s just a non-zero
possibility. Don’t know more.”
Musk
resigned from both White House advisory councils in June last year, in
protest of Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. The
president’s immigration order remains caught up in the courts; a third round of
legal arguments will be heard by the Supreme Court in April.
