A former senior executive who played a key role in Twitter’s transition and rebranding to ‘X’ following Elon Musk’s acquisition has criticised the steep $100,000 fee introduced by former President Donald Trump on H-1B visas, which predominantly affect Indian and other tech workers employed in the US.
Esther Crawford, who was director of product management at Twitter/X, also condemned the widespread anti-immigrant sentiment prevalent among many Americans.
She highlighted that the platform’s survival was largely thanks to engineers from India and China on H-1B visas. “They stayed after the acquisition, worked long hours and solved brutally complex problems alongside American colleagues,” she said in a post on X.
“When posting anti-immigrant takes, remember: they’re the reason you can tweet at all,” she added.
Indians make up over 70% of the roughly 400,000 current H-1B visa holders, with Chinese nationals accounting for about 12%.
Regarding Elon Musk’s stance on the H-1B programme, he has remained silent since the announcement of the high fee on new applications. However, based on his past comments, he is unlikely to strongly oppose it despite his complicated history with former President Trump.
Musk has previously supported the H-1B visa scheme but advocated for increasing its cost, arguing the system was “broken.” This view aligns with Trump’s reasoning that the programme is often exploited and should be reserved for genuinely highly skilled workers.
The hefty one-time fee is expected to severely impact the programme in the medium to long term, given that the median annual salary of H-1B holders is lower than $100,000. Consequently, US companies may be discouraged from hiring foreign workers under this scheme.
Alternatively, some firms might relocate these jobs overseas. In that case, a proposed measure known as the HIRE Act, which would impose significant taxes on payments made to companies outsourcing jobs abroad, could be implemented if approved.
