First, some context
Indian-origin Sriram Krishnan, chosen as Senior White House Policy Advisor for AI by Donald Trump, became the target of online hate earlier this week after a number of far-right voices asked whether an Indian immigrant could be expected to promote American interests. Most prominent among his critics was Laura Loomer, a far-right political activist who suggested that Krishnan would use his influence to open up immigration for more Indians.
In a series of vitriol-filled social media posts, Loomer voiced her strong opposition to the continued use and expansion of H1B visas, which allows highly skilled workers to live and work in the US, as well as the issuance of green cards to immigrants.
“Our country was built by white Europeans, actually. Not third-world invaders from India,” she wrote.
Her views found support from a section of the internet which felt that immigrants from other countries were taking away jobs meant for Americans, especially in STEM occupations.
(Also read: Far-right activist schooled for slamming Indian-origin Sriram Krishnan’s appointment as Trump advisor)
Support for Indian immigrants
Amid this discussion on American jobs, Krishnan – now an American citizen – and other Indian immigrants found support from various quarters, directly and indirectly. Among those who supported skilled immigration was Dmitry Shevelenko, Chief Business Officer at Perplexity AI.
Shevelenko noted that he was employed by a company that was founded by an Indian worker on a visa.
“I’m an American who is gainfully employed because an Indian immigrant on a visa founded a company in the US. Thx Aravind Srinivas for creating 100+ American jobs,” Shevelenko wrote on X.
Perplexity AI is a conversational search engine that was founded in 2022 by Aravind Srinivas, Andy Konwinski, Denis Yarats and Johnny Ho. Chennai-born Srinivas serves as the company’s CEO. He studied at IIT Madras and worked at OpenAI before launching his own company, which today has over a 100 employees based in the US.
Despite having lived in the US for several years, Srinivas still works on a visa. He recently tweeted saying he should get a green card and found support from Elon Musk.
