TOI correspondent from Washington: Among issues Charlie Kirk took a strong stand against was immigration, even legal immigration stemming from H1B visas that many Indian students and professionals use. “America does not need more visas for people from India. Perhaps no form of legal immigration has so displaced American workers as those from India. Enough already. We’re full. Let’s finally put our own people first,” he said in a post on X on September 1 He was responding to a Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham’s post suggesting that a US-India trade deal might involve more visas for Indian professionals.In a subsequent post on Sept 5, Kirk supported policies reportedly being considered by the Trump administration to limit outsourcing to Indian companies, saying, “Good. Invest in this country first. Hire American companies and American workers.” Kirk also triggered views subsequently expressed by White House trade counselor Peter Navarro’s that social media accounts promoting India’s viewpoint on X were acting as foreign agents. “You have to wonder if this coordinated activity promoting the interests of India should trigger FARA registrations. Many accounts are obviously being paid to peddle this trash from the Indian government, who is paying them and how much? We need answers,” he wrote in a Sept 4 post.
