Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy Spat Continues with Debate over H1-B Visas

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The longstanding spat between former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has continued, as the former ambassador attacked Ramaswamy’s pro-visa stance.

The selection of Siriam Krishnan as a senior policy adviser for artificial intelligence in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy sparked a widespread debate over the H1-B visa program, which conservatives have railed as “abusive” and designed to undercut wages of white-collar Americans. Vivek Ramaswamy supercharged the debate when he claimed that America “has venerated mediocrity over excellence.”

Replying to Ramaswamy on Thursday, Haley wrote, “There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture. All you have to do is look at the border and see how many want what we have. We should be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not foreign workers.”

She continued on Friday:

When I was governor in SC our unemployment went from 11% to 4%. How? Not by hiring foreign workers. We recruited foreign companies to invest in SC but not their workers. We retrained South Carolinians in our tech schools for these new jobs.

The companies started apprentice programs for high school and college students. You know who paid for them? The companies, not govt. Today South Carolinians are building planes, automobiles, tires, etc. And building them well.

What is lazy is for the tech industry to automatically go to foreign workers for their needs. If the tech industry needs workers, invest in our education system. Invest in our American workforce. We must invest in Americans first before looking elsewhere. Don’t ever underestimate the talent of Americans or the American spirit.

Haley’s rebuttal of Ramaswamy’s arguments for H1-B visas follow as Haley and Ramaswamy have had a series of heated arguments during the 2024 Republican presidential primaries.

During the second GOP debate in September 2023, Haley said of Ramaswamy, “Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say.” The former South Carolina governor had knocked Ramaswamy for promoting the use of TikTok.

“What they’re doing is, these 150 million people are on TikTok, that means they can get your contacts. They can get your financial information. They can get your emails, they can get your text messages. They can get all of these things. China knows exactly what they’re doing,” Haley said about TikTok’s data harvesting practices.