Ramaswamy Making News About Gutting Govt., Ending H1B Visas, Sees Poll Numbers Drop

WASHINGTON, DC (IANS) – Responding to polls that show his unfavourability rising, the GOP’s Vivek Ramaswamy has said that people are annoyed by a 38-year-old’s rise, believing that he is too young to be the US president.

The remarks came after a Fox News Poll showed that unfavorable views of Ramaswamy have risen 12 percent since August, just after he took center stage at the maiden Republican presidential debate where rivals Chris Christie and Nikki Haley gave him a tough fight.

Appearing on ‘Fox News Sunday’, he told host Shannon Bream, “We have been taking intense criticism, Shannon, over the last several weeks since I performed well on that second debate, and this is part of the process,” Ramaswamy said.  “So, I invite the open debate.”

“The reality is many people are annoyed by my rise and believe that a 38-year-old is too young to be US president,” he added. Ramaswamy bombastically added, “Thomas Jefferson was 33 years old when he wrote the US Declaration of Independence. He also invented the swivel chair while he was at it, by the way”.

Post-debate, a confident Ramaswamy told reporters that only two candidates would be left in the race, which would be him and Trump.

With a commentator saying Americans find Ramaswamy “annoying”, the biotech entrepreneur insists his campaign is on a path to success.

“We came from 0.0 percent to where we are now,” he told Fox News. “I think we’re on track to win this election.”

End H-1B Program

He has remained in the news through various statements that have attracted media attention including wanting to wipe out the FBI and the Department of Education. His latest salvo was fired against the H-1B visa program which he now has vowed to end. Terming the H-1B Visa as “indentured servitude”, Ramaswamy called it to replace the “lottery system” for an “actual meritocratic admission”, adding that the US needs to eliminate chain-based migration.

“The lottery system needs to be replaced by actual meritocratic admission. It’s a form of indentured servitude that only accrues to the benefit of the company that sponsored an H-1B immigrant.” Ramaswamy said in a statement to Politico.

He added, “The people who come as family members are not the meritocratic immigrants who make skills-based contributions to this country.”

Notably, H-1B is a non-immigrant visa, which is highly sought after including in India. This allows US companies to employ foreign workers in occupations that require some technical expertise.

The issue also came into discussion during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the United States in June this year. US authorities announced that they will introduce ‘in-country’ renewable H-1B visas to smoothen the process of H-1B visa renewal for several Indians.

It is pertinent to note that Ramaswamy has himself used the H-1B system in the past to hire high-skilled foreign workers for the pharma company that built much of his wealth, Politico said.

From 2018 through 2023, US Citizenship and Immigration Services approved 29 applications for Ramaswamy’s former company, Roivant Sciences, to hire employees under H-1B visas, which allow US companies to employ foreign workers in tech and other specialized jobs, as per POLITICO.

In the past, the Ohio-based entrepreneur had acknowledged his own experience with immigration during his opening remarks at the first GOP debate in Milwaukee.

“My parents came to this country with no money 40 years ago…I have gone on to found multi-billion-dollar companies,” he had said.

Ramaswamy’s stance on H-1B visas is reminiscent of former President Donald Trump who had suspended new work visas and blocked hundreds of thousands of foreign workers from US employment, as part of his sweeping effort to limit the number of immigrants coming in. But, just like Ramaswamy, Trump has also hired several foreign workers under H-1B visas for his businesses.