MAGA v MUSK Trump backers battle online over issue of skilled immigrants

Weeks before President-elect Donald Trump is to take office, a major rift has emerged among his supporters over immigration and the place of foreign workers in the US labor market.

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WASHINGTON -

The debate hinges on how much tolerance, if any, the incoming administration should have for skilled immigrants brought into the country on work visas.

The schism pits immigration hardliners against many of the President-elect's most prominent backers from the technology industry - among them billionaire Elon Musk, the world's richest man, who helped back Trump's election efforts with more than a quarter-billion dollars, and Mr David Sacks, a venture capitalist picked to be czar for artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency policy.

The tech industry has long relied on foreign skilled workers to help run its companies, a labor supply that critics say undercuts wages for American citizens.

The dispute, which late on Dec 26 exploded online into acrimony, finger-pointing and accusations of censorship, frames a policy quandary for Trump. The President-elect has in the past expressed a willingness to provide more work visas to skilled workers, but has also promised to close the border, deploy tariffs to create more jobs for American citizens and severely restrict immigration.

Ms Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and fervent Trump loyalist, helped set off the altercation this week by criticizing Trump's selection of Mr Sriram Krishnan, an Indian American venture capitalist, to be an adviser on artificial intelligence policy. In a post, she said she was concerned that Mr Krishnan, a naturalized US citizen who was born in India, would have influence on the Trump administration's immigration policies, and mentioned "third-world invaders."