What’s the row over Trump’s AI adviser Sriram Krishnan’s immigration views?

Donald Trump’s appointment of Sriram Krishnan as Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has not gone down very well with many Americans.

While Krishnan’s qualification for the job is not suspect, his views on immigration, seeking an expansion of the H-1B visa programme and removal of country caps for Green Cards, seem to be directly in opposition to the US President-elect’s anti-migrant “America First” policy.

Krishnan, a Chennai-born Indian-American entrepreneur and venture capitalist, has held leadership positions at Meta, X (previously Twitter), and Microsoft, and invested in companies such as SpaceX and Figma. He is known to be close to tech mogul Elon Musk.

Krishnan’s immigration views

In an X post earlier this month, he listed a few policies he would like to see implemented “to encourage entrepreneurship in the US.

One was an exclusive visa category for startup founders or entrepreneurs. Another was to see H1B visa holders being allowed to start companies or transition to entrepreneur visas, with the latter on his priority list.

Again, replying to a post by Musk last month, Krishnan wrote, “Anything to remove country caps for green cards / unlock skilled immigration would be huge.”

Also read: Trump appoints Indian American Sriram Krishnan as senior AI policy advisor

Fear of losing jobs

Many Trump supporters and far-right critics have remarked that such policies are likely to harm American workers and prioritize immigrants.

“This is America last behavior. H-1Bs are already being abused at scale – and this is going to make it worse,” wrote a X user.

“Sriram Krishnan’s pet issue is expanding the H-1B visa program,” which was “not America First at all,” quipped another.

Yet another warned, “Let’s pray their influence is limited to STEM and does not spill into immigration policy. H-1B expansion would be as damaging to the USA as NAFTA or letting China into the WTO.”

Also watch: Meet Sriram Krishnan: Indian-American set to shape AI policy in White House

Some slammed Trump’s decision to appoint Krishnan in the top post. “Donald Trump failed to address this during his last presidency and looks to be failing again,” wrote a netizen.

In Krishnan’s defence

While Krishnan himself has clarified his statement, several others, including Musk, have backed him up. Krishnan has explained his call for a removal of the country cap saying, “we need the best, regardless of where they happen to be born (another bizarre quirk — the country cap is where you were born, not even citizenship)”.

David Sacks, appointed by Trump as “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar”, with whom Krishnan will closely collaborate in his new role, has further clarified Krishnan’s proposal.

“Point of clarification: Sriram didn’t say he wants to remove all caps on green cards. He said he wants to remove *country* caps on green cards. Right now, every country in the world gets allocated the same number of green cards, no matter how many qualified applicants it has,” he posted on X.

“So applicants from India have an 11-year wait whereas applicants from many other countries have no wait at all,” he further explained.

Also read: Indian IT firms build guardrails as Trump's tough H-1B policies loom again

“Sriram still supports skills-based criteria for receiving a green card, not making the program unlimited. In fact, he wants to make the program entirely merit-based. Supporting a limited number of highly skilled immigrants is still a prevalent view on the right. Sriram is definitely not a “career leftist”!” he signed off.

Next, Perplexity AI CEO Arvind Srinivas agreed with Sacks’ post: “Exactly. DOGE for immigration doesn’t mean more immigration or remove caps. Rather, it means let the best people in based on skill rather than trying to make sure every country is equally important.”

Musk backs Krishnan

Musk first responded to Srinivas’s post with an emoticon showing his full agreement. Later, took to X himself to criticise the views opposing Krishnan’s, calling them a “fixed pie” fallacy.

“The ‘fixed pie’ fallacy is at the heart of much wrong-headed economic thinking. There is essentially infinite potential for job and company creation. Think of all the things that didn’t exist 20 or 30 years ago!” Musk wrote on X.

Musk posted his comments while retweeting a post by entrepreneur-investor Joe Lonsdale, who wrote, “My friend Sriram is America First. For USA to have the highest standard of living, generous govt services, and strongest military, we need to recruit the best and brightest and build the best companies. I’m against more low-end H1B immigrants; but let’s win at the talent game.”

Also read: US: Trump plans to axe birthright citizenship; can he do it? Will it impact Indians?

Ro Khanna’s highlights “American exceptionalism”

These comments came close on the heels of an X post by investigative journalist Laura Loomer. Sharing Krishnan’s post on removing country caps for green cards, Loomer claimed it went against Trump’s “America First” policy and that his government would face difficulties because of it.

Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna, too, criticised those targeting Krishnan over his Indian or migrant origin.

Khanna emphasised that the US’s ability to attract talent from around the world shows its “exceptionalism”, putting it ahead of countries such as China.

Replying to a post that said, “Did any of yall vote for this Indian to run America”, Khanna wrote, “You fools criticizing [Krishnan] as Indian born criticize Musk as South African born or Jensen as Taiwanese born. It is great that talent around the world wants to come here, not to China, and that Sriram can rise to the highest levels. It’s called American exceptionalism.”