Report: Elon Musk's Tesla Replaced Laid Off Americans with Foreign Workers on H-1B Visas

In the wake of Elon Musk’s fiery defense of H-1B visas, it has come to light that Tesla has replaced U.S. employees laid off earlier this year with foreign workers holding the very H-1B visas that Musk lashed out at conservatives for not supporting.

Electrek reports that according to reports from current and former Tesla employees, as well as data from the U.S. Department of Labor, the company has significantly increased its use of H-1B visas to fill positions left vacant by the layoffs of approximately 15,000 U.S. workers in April 2024. The layoffs affected every department but were particularly concentrated in Tesla’s operations in Texas and California, where the company has the largest number of employees.

H-1B visas are intended to allow US companies to hire foreign workers for “specialty occupations” when there is a shortage of qualified American workers. The visas are valid for three years and can be extended for an additional three years. However, the visa holder must maintain employment with the sponsoring company to retain their work status, otherwise they are required to leave the country. This arrangement has been criticized by some as giving employers excessive power over foreign workers and potentially leading to a form of modern indentured servitude.

Tesla alone requested over 2,000 H-1B visas during the period when it was laying off thousands of U.S. workers. This figure represents over three percent of the total H-1B visas available nationwide. According to the affected employees, many of those laid off were senior engineers with higher salaries, who have been replaced by more junior foreign engineers at lower pay rates. This practice has raised concerns about companies using the H-1B program to cut labor costs and displace American workers.

Elon Musk has recently been using his considerable influence to advocate for increasing the number of H-1B visas, arguing that there are not enough skilled workers in the US to meet the needs of companies like Tesla. However, this stance has drawn criticism from some of Musk’s conservative supporters, who view the H-1B program as a threat to American jobs.

When conservatives raised their voices against policies that harm U.S. workers, Musk lashed out at them via his X platform:

One X user on Friday stated, “Let’s optimize H1-B,” a reference to Musk’s belief that things that should not exist should not be optimized.

“The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B,” Musk raged in response to the X user. “Take a big step back and FUCK YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.”

Musk’s comment is a paraphrase of a line from the 2008 comedy film Tropic Thunder.

Proponents of H-1B visas like Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy claim that it is necessary to bring in skilled workers to fill gaps in the American workforce, particularly in specialized fields like engineering.