The co-hosts of Fox & Friends Weekend were faced with a tricky job on Sunday morning — navigating the feud that has broken out amongst supporters of President-elect Donald Trump over H-1B visas for highly skilled immigrants, which significantly escalated on Saturday.
“America First” acolytes on the far-right want stricter, draconian immigration measures applied to both illegal and legal migrants when Trump takes office in January. Among the loudest voices pushing this argument are far-right activist Laura Loomer, and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.
In contrast, the Silicon Valley “tech bro” contingent led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, which backed his election, wants better legal immigration routes such as the H-1B program to fill skills gaps in key sectors such as engineering, science, and technology.
Yesterday afternoon, the president-elect came out in support of Musk and the latter argument, saying he had always been a “believer” in the program and had employees at his properties in the country on H-1B visas.
During the campaign and in his first term he had been against it, so the about-face has confused some of his core supporters.
This schism in MAGAworld, before Trump even re-enters the White House, is awkward leaving Fox News tip-toeing through something of a minefield, as Mediaite reported.
Co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy noted that the president-elect coming out in favor of the H-1B visa “left a lot of people confused.”
Trying to rationalize support for skilled worker visas, her colleague Charlie Hurt remarked: “The idea of having a program that allows an Elon Musk to come into the country, I don’t think anybody has a problem with that, and certainly Donald Trump doesn’t have a problem with that. The problem with the program is that it’s been so abused and turned into a system where it is designed for big tech employers to get, maybe not cheap labor, but cheaper labor.”
Will Cain, who co-hosted with the two, added: “We’re not an algorithm. We’re not a company. We are a country. We’re a nation. We are a people. And that purpose of that nation is to serve Americans.”
Campos-Duffy then suggested that tech CEOs such as Musk might have to pay American tech workers more attractive wages and pay themselves a little less if the talent pool was smaller through a more restrictive immigration policy.
“If you limit those visas and only bring in the Elon Musks and the really exceptional people, what you’re going to see is that there’s a tighter market and the wages will have to be — you’ll have to pay wages that young math students like my son-in-law, who is married and has to support a family, would want to be part of,” she said.
“And that may mean, guys, guess what? Fox News alert! It may mean that big tech bosses make a little less money and they have to pay their workers a little better. I think all of us would be okay with that.”
Sounding remarkably Campos-Duffy added that the federal government should invest in educational opportunities in underserved communities to train the next generation to take the jobs currently being filled by skilled immigrants.
As deft as the presenters might have tried to be in tackling what is a thorny issue, Steve Bannon was having none of it.
