A recent flare-up over visas for tech workers revealed a rift among Republicans on immigration.   Steve Bannon, once President-elect Donald Trump’s chief strategist, termed the H-1B visa program a “total and complete scam.

Tesla founder Elon Musk is a vocal proponent of H-1B visas, and his company's use of the program jumped sharply this year.

As newly inaugurated President Donald Trump readies his immigration crackdown, his allies in his Republican Party have splintered over policies surrounding U.S. worker visas intended to go to specialty occupations like the tech industry.

I’ve witnessed the transformative power of legal immigration, which fuels economic growth and sustains global leadership.

Created in 1990 and intended for skilled foreign workers, the visa had until recently remained little known outside Silicon Valley, where technology companies use it to employ tens of thousands.

Tesla laid off roughly 6,600 workers. According to labor statistics, it filed about 1,300 H-1B visa applications around the same time.

It's perfectly logical for Donald Trump to support securing the border and to promote legal migration through H-1B visas.

For decades, people on both sides of the aisle have argued over the merits of immigration visas like the H-1B, citing concerns over worker pay and the green card backlog.

Trump loyalists in Silicon Valley support the foreign worker permit but political strategists and Republicans are against the programme.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said that he and Elon Musk have "hugged it out" and resolved their differences, going so far as to compare the billionaire to Albert Einstein. " SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, I mean, the guy is our Einstein," Dimon told CNBC.

Trump-aligned tech moguls like Elon Musk argue that it fuels innovation and national prosperity. Many Democrats, meanwhile, feel compelled to defend H-1B visa holders’ economic contributions, particularly when these guest workers become subject to xenophobic attacks.