BREAKING: Top tech leaders change course on H-1B visa program after populist clash

Support for the H-1B visa program among key figures in the tech industry has weakened and calls for the program to be reformed are growing. The program brings up to 85,000 workers to the US every year from around the globe to fill skilled roles, however, concerns about fraud and the taking of American jobs from American workers were raised.

Per Semafor, those calling for reforms include tech giant Marc Andreessen and Democrat lawmakers Ro Khanna and Bernie Sanders. Elon Musk, the owner of X, called for the program to be reformed back in December, when the program was frequently in the news.

Backlash against the program was sparked by Trump’s nomination of India-born entrepreneur Sriram Krishan to be a senior policy advisor for Artificial Intelligence. Some raised concerns about fraud in the program, while others, like Vice President JD Vance, had long expressed concerns about those hired through the program undercutting the wages of American workers.

In December, Musk softened his previous position on the program, saying that it was "Easily fixed by raising the minimum salary significantly and adding a yearly cost for maintaining the H1B, making it materially more expensive to hire from overseas than domestically. I’ve been very clear that the program is broken and needs major reform."

Speaking with podcaster Lex Friedman in February, Andreessen, who has long supported the program, said that social media criticism of the program prompted him to reconsider his stances on the issue.

"We have been in a 60-year social engineering experiment to exclude native-born people from the educational slots and jobs that high-skill immigration has been funneling foreigners into," he said. Andreessen did not call for the program to be canned, but instead said the country needs to both bring in outside skilled workers and provide more opportunities for Americans.