Following the row over his remarks on the H-1B visa program, Indian-American US presidential aspirant Vivek Ramaswamy has said he understands what he wants to reform and stressed that the H-1B program was “senseless.” In an interview with Politico, Ramaswamy, whose biotech firm is valued at around $15 billion, called the US work visa for highly skilled foreign workers a form of indentured servitude and vowed to “gut” the lottery-based system and replace it with meritocratic admission if elected president next year.
The H-1B visa program allows US companies to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations that require technical or theoretical expertise. Many technology firms rely on it to employ thousands of employees. According to data compiled by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, between 2018 and 2023, Ramaswamy’s former company, Roivant Sciences, filed 29 applications for visas to hire employees from India and China.
However, he quickly clarified that he is not against the visa program as such but only against its current implementation and that it needs to be revamped to ensure that its goals are met. The aspirant also said that he favors eliminating chain-based migration, where family members of the visa holders come along with them, and believes those people have different meritocratic qualities than skilled immigrants.
He added that the US needs to ensure a strong and robust economy, which requires the country to attract the best and the brightest from all over the world, not just those who are already here. He further pointed out that he favors free trade agreements that benefit both the United States and the countries it deals with, including those in Latin America.
Ramaswamy also spoke about his upcoming visit to South Korea in the interview. He reiterated his belief that the North-South Summit should take place and that he would like to see an agreement on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. He added that he favors a new international security architecture that includes a more vital role for the UN and that the US should work with other countries to achieve this goal.
Ramaswamy is taking several pages out of Trump’s playbook on the campaign trail with his bold ideas and flamboyant style. He drew roaring applause from his audience at the Milwaukee debate when he claimed that all other candidates on stage were “bought and paid for” by donors. He has railed against climate change policies while saying that more people are dying of lousy climate change policies than actual climate change. His stance on the H-1B visa, which echoes that of Trump during his 2016 campaign, is just the latest example. But it remains to be seen whether his new remarks will make him more or less popular with the voters in the coming weeks. He will have to work hard to win their support if he wants to unseat the front-runner, Donald Trump.
