5 minPolitics
Tech investor mocks Vance’s call to hire Americans as ‘DEI’, gets blasted by Trump officials in H-1B firestorm
A Y Combinator general partner drew sharp rebukes from Trump administration officials after mocking Vice President JD Vance’s push to prioritize American workers over foreign H-1B hires, reigniting a debate over the visa program and Silicon Valley hiring practices.
A prominent Silicon Valley investor has drawn sharp criticism from Trump administration officials after mocking Vice President JD Vance’s call to prioritize American workers over cheaper foreign labor, reigniting a heated debate over the H-1B visa program and tech industry hiring practices.
Ankit Gupta, a general partner at the influential startup accelerator Y Combinator, ridiculed Vance’s stance in a post on X, writing, «In a win for the woke left DEI is back.» The comment, which has since been restricted from public view, came amid a broader controversy over a Trump administration proposal to impose a $103,265 fee on many new H-1B visa petitions.
The H-1B program allows U.S. companies to hire foreign workers for specialty occupations and is overwhelmingly used by the tech industry. Critics, particularly among conservatives, argue the program is abused by tech companies to bring in cheaper labor, often from India, at the expense of American workers. Vance has repeatedly emphasized the need to hire Americans, recently declaring, «If an American corporation needs workers, it should hire and train Americans.»
Gupta’s comparison of prioritizing American workers to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives sparked immediate backlash from several Trump administration officials. Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito responded directly, saying, «Ankit Gupta thinks hiring Americans first—in America—is ‘DEI.’ No, Ankit. It’s called putting your own citizens first. American companies. American jobs. American workers first. If that offends you, the problem isn’t America. It’s your sense of entitlement.»
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson also criticized Gupta’s rhetoric, framing it as part of a larger phenomenon of contempt for American workers. «I’m deeply uncomfortable with wealthy investors attacking American workers like this. I’m afraid it’s increasingly obvious to many people that individuals such as this guy do not have the best interests of America and her citizens in mind,» he wrote. «The purpose of the American economy is to promote the general welfare of American workers, not provide jobs for the rest of the world.»
In response to Ferguson’s post, Y Combinator President and CEO Garry Tan wrote, «YC supports hiring and funding Americans.»
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon also weighed in, sharing a lengthy post criticizing what she described as abuses of the H-1B program and other foreign-worker visa categories. She accused many American tech companies of preferring «cheaper/exploitable foreign workers» for routine jobs Americans could do, citing failures to post jobs on normal hiring channels, H-1B abuses, and misuse of other visa categories such as J-1 and OPT.
John Miano, an attorney with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said the dispute speaks to fundamental questions about America’s identity. «The center of this dispute is over what America is. I, and I think most Americans, believe America as a nation state; a commonwealth for the improvement of its citizens. Mr. Gupta clearly views America as an [economic] zone,» he said. Miano added that the H-1B program is «designed to allow employers to pay H-1B nonimmigrants extremely low wages» and that «the biggest problem with H-1B is that it works exactly as Congress designed it to work.»
Former Trump appointee and Republican consultant Mary Marslender explained how tech companies find loopholes to avoid hiring Americans, particularly those entering the job market. «The uncomfortable reality is that many large American corporations prefer cheaper foreign labor because it gives them greater control over mid- to entry-level positions, all while telling Washington that qualified American workers can’t be found,» she said.
The controversy highlights ongoing tensions between Silicon Valley’s reliance on foreign talent and growing political pressure to protect American workers, a divide that has become increasingly prominent within the Trump coalition.
