Disagreements on policy are normal even within a party coalition, to be worked out by negotiations and compromise. On the one hand, this does not seem like an issue that admits compromise. If one faction of the party wants to expand the program and the other wants to massively shrink, or even eliminate, it, that seems like the sort of difference that can only end with one side winning and the other losing, or else with deadlock and nothing happening.
On the other hand, if one takes a few steps back and looks at the larger picture, H-1B visas are only a small part of the total immigration story. Compromise is certainly possible. There are an estimated 11 million people in the country without legal authorization.* Trump has claimed the number is as high as 20 million. By contrast, there are about 3 million H1-B visa holders in the US -- all present legally and not subject to deportation except for misconduct. An obvious compromise is to focus on illegal immigration and leave legal immigration for a later date. Or, Trump could cut back on other forms of legal immigration but grant an exception to the tech industry. Others have suggested that if the tech lords had just had the sense to keep quiet, they could probably have whispered in Trump's ear and gotten their way without the MAGA faithful even noticing.
Look, let me be plain and say that I do not know enough about the H-1B visa program or labor conditions in the tech industry to have an opinion on the merits. Nor do I care enough to do extensive research. What is clear is that hardcore anti-immigration activists have thrown off the mask and revealed their racism.
The MAGA faithful at least sometimes pretended only to oppose illegal immigration and said that they were fine with people who comply with all requirements to come here legally. They even pretended to distinguish between Temporary Protected Status -- people who entered the country without legal authorization* but are granted legal status due to an emergency situation at home -- and people who indisputably applied for and received legal status before entering the US. If your only objection is to illegal immigration, then even if you consider people with Temporary Protected Status as illegal immigrants granted retroactive recognition, that leaves no valid grounds to object to entry on an H-1B visa, which is indisputably legal. People who oppose the H-1B visa program are admitting that what they really oppose is all immigration, legal or illegal, or at least all immigration by people who are not white. So I understand why some people see MAGA as the leopard eating tech's face.
But in then end I think if this was just a dispute over H-1B visas, I still think it could be dismissed as a "spat" that would blow over. What turns this into a serious breach, and a real example of leopards eating faces, is that Musk penalized members of the MAGA faithful for their posts.
After all, Musk proclaimed himself to be a "free speech absolutist." And, of course, by "free speech absolutist" he meant that he would not take down any right-wing speech, no matter how false, defamatory, or harmful, Russian bots and professional trolls included. In fact, he aggressively promoted lies about FEMA's response to hurricanes in order to benefit the Trump campaign. Needless to say, Musk's "free speech absolutism" did not extend to people he disagreed with. It was compatible with banning leftwing posters at the behest of rightwing campaigns. and manipulating algorhithms to his advantage.
Naturally, none of this bothered the right wing any. Brendan Carr, Trump's nominee to lead the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has held up Elon Musk as a model of the free speech policies all social media companies should adopt, or face anti-trust actions. Carr also approves of denying licenses to stations that run news stories that displease Donald Trump. And Trump at a recent Turning Point USA rally proclaimed to thunderous applause that under a Trump presidency there would be freedom of the press -- at the same time he is using dubious libel suits to shut down any outlet that criticizes him. Clearly on the right wing, "free speech" and "freedom of the press" mean non-stop right wing propaganda, with no form of excluded on the feeble grounds that it is false.
And now, lo and behold! after right wing posters applauded Elon Musk for suppressing left-wing posts while protecting them, it turns out he is just as willing to suppress right-wing posts he disagrees with. Recently he cancelled verification, demonitized, or suspended some 14 right-wing accounts, including Laura Loomer. And I have to believe that a lot of right wingers who might have forgiven Musk for a disagreement on immigration will not be so quick to defend him when it turns out that Musk's exceptions to "free speech absolutism" extend to THEM!
*Without legal authorization does not necessarily mean illegally. Asylum seekers can enter the country without legal authorization, but are not entering illegally so long as they turn themselves in and apply for asylum.
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