- Tuesday, December 24, 2024
The Indian-American tech entrepreneur has been vocal about expanding the H-1B visa programme and wants the country caps on Green Cards to be removed
By: India Weekly
US PRESIDENT-ELECT Donald Trump’s appointment of Indian-American tech entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan as Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence has now sparked an online debate over his reported views on immigration.
Many argue that it is at variance with Trump’s protectionist ‘America First’ policy, which was one of the cornerstones of his election campaign.
Krishnan has been vocal about expanding the H-1B visa programme and wants removal of the country caps on Green Cards. In a recent tweet he even advocated for a visa category for startup entrepreneurs and allowing H-1B visa holders to set up companies.
Trump loyalists argue this will harm American workers and encourage immigration. They fear that Krishnan’s suggestions will only worsen the ongoing ‘abuse’ of H-1B visa programme.
Many X users also fear that Krishna’s influence will not be confined to AI and technology, and it may extend to immigration and economy.
Krishnan will work alongside former PayPal chief operating officer David O Sacks.
Krishnan is closely associated with Tesla CEO Elon Musk and was instrumental in restructuring Twitter (now rebranded as X), after Musk acquired the company in 2022.
Musk now serves as co-leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), a policy group focused on making recommendations for government restructuring and reducing federal spending.
Born in Chennai, Krishnan earned his BTech degree in Information Technology from SRM Engineering College in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu.
He left for the US in 2005 and joined Microsoft. He later led product teams at major tech companies including X, Yahoo!, Facebook, and Snap.
Trump has already chosen a sizeable number of Indian-Americans in his team. They include Jay Bhattacharya, Vivek Ramaswamy, Harmeet K Dhillon and Kash Patel.
Bhattacharya has been made the Director of the National Institutes of Health, the country’s top health research institution.
Ramaswamy has been chosen to lead the Doge, alongside Musk.
Dhillon has been nominated as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the US Department of Justice, while Kash Patel will serve as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
