Allen Shao King emigrated from China when he was 4 years old after his father, a scientist, received a visa to work in the United States.
King, who lives in Nashville and is the legal director at the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition, said his parents moved to America for the same reason many people do: opportunity.
“For a long time now, the U.S. has held this reputation of being the greatest country in the world, right?” King said in a phone call. “As much division as there is now politically, I think that reputation still holds true in a lot of other countries. For them, they wanted to come here to try to better their careers and try to live in this country and allow me to grow up in a better environment.”
The H-1B program, which enables skilled foreign workers to find temporary employment in the U.S., has fueled recent infighting on social media within President-elect Donald Trump’s political coalition.
Elon Musk, who will lead Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, has defended the program, posting that the number of people in the U.S. who are super talented engineers and super motivated is “far too low.” He compared it to a professional sports team recruiting top talent. Musk’s arguments prompted rebukes from conservative immigration hardliners, who argue those jobs should go to American-born workers.