Nikki Haley‘s son Nalin Haley once again doubled down on his anti-immigrant stance and said that legal immigration too, does not make any sense at a time when companies are not hiring. Legal immigrants are those who legally come to the US on a study visa or a work visa. The comment came at a time when the Donald Trump administration unleashed an unprecedented crackdown on H-1B visa program, leading to Green Cards. But Nalin’s comment was in the context of Vivek Ramaswamy‘s stance on immigration, an old statement that Ramaswamy gave years ago.Indian-origin Vivek Ramaswamy, the GOP candidate running for Ohio Governor, always supported the H-1B visa program though not in its present form. Years ago, he once said that there should be no fixed cap on legal immigration and it should be a meritocracy. Admission to the US should only be based on skills and nothing else, he opined.“It makes no sense to have legal immigration at a time when companies aren’t hiring, AI is replacing jobs, youth unemployment is high, and having a fragile economy. But they know this, what it’s really about is replacing American workers to maximize corporate profit,” Nalin Haley commented out of his grudges against Ramaswamy.“Meritocracy only works if it’s within a country. It can only be meritocracy for Americans. Otherwise, you’re no longer a country and reduced to a globalist entity,” Haley commented. “They’re trying to take the GOP back to early 2010’s libertarianism and we can’t let that happen. The Republican Party must be a party supportive of the working class, uplifted by Americans and for Americans,” he said.In December 2024, Ramaswamy triggered a major H-1B storm after he made a lengthy post explaining why America is failing to produce more STEM students, which is leading US companies to turn to foreign workers. In his explanation, Ramaswamy disparaged American culture of mediocrity and not taking academics seriously, unlike Asian culture. That rant earned Ramaswamy intense hatred from MAGA that have not forgiven him to date.After many a battle with groypers and MAGA, Ramaswamy stayed away from the immigration issue ahead of the election.Ramaswamy’s race for Ohio governor against Democrat Amy Acton is now rated a toss-up by all three major forecasters, as he seeks to become only the third Indian-American governor in US history after Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley.Polling averages on Saturday showed Acton ahead. Track the Vote put her at 48.5 per cent to Ramaswamy’s 43.7 per cent, while PolitiKool had her at 48.4 per cent to his 43.8 per cent and noted a 3.6-point shift towards Acton over the past month. Vice President and Ramaswamy’s friend JD Vance campaigned for him. “Vivek is an entrepreneur. He’s a guy who hasn’t just received a paycheck he signed a paycheck to. He’s gonna get historic property tax relief for every single citizen who owns a house in this state,” JD Vance added.
