- Donald Trump recently appointed Sriram Krishnan to an AI advisory role.
- Krishnan came to the US from India in 2007 and became a US citizen in 2016.
- Indian tech workers initially praised his appointment but have grown concerned by MAGA criticism.
Anuj Christian's green card was approved in 2019, a decade after he first came to the US as a graduate student from India. Since then, he's been waiting to receive it, one of thousands trapped in a lengthy backlog created by America's byzantine immigration system.
Earlier this month, Christian was hopeful for the first time in years. Just before Christmas, Donald Trump announced that Sriram Krishnan, a first-generation Indian American, would serve as a senior White House policy advisor for AI. Krishnan is set to work closely with Trump's new "crypto czar" David Sacks, an early investor in Facebook, SpaceX, Uber, and Palantir.
For Christian, Krishnan's appointment felt personal. "Sriram has personally been through the immigration system," said Christian, who runs an immigration advocacy group called FAIR. "Someone who has personally been through this issue is close to the president now. That has never happened before."
From Chennai to Silicon Valley
Krishnan arrived in the US in 2007 from Chennai, India, to begin a six-year stint at Microsoft. From there, he climbed the ranks of Silicon Valley, holding senior roles at Yahoo, Snap, Facebook, and Twitter. In 2020, he moved to venture capital, becoming a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz.
Along the way, Krishnan became a US citizen in 2016, a milestone that eludes many legal immigrants from India. The green-card backlog, a byproduct of per-country caps on employment-based permanent US residency, has left thousands of skilled workers from India in limbo.
Krishnan's appointment has a unique resonance for those who've gone through the system. He's spoken openly about the challenges of navigating US immigration and has advocated for raising the country-based green-card caps. These calls for change have been a recurring theme of "The Aarthi and Sriram Show," a podcast Krishnan hosts with his tech entrepreneur wife, Aarthi Ramamurthy.
MAGA backlash
Krishnan's visibility and advocacy have turned him into a lightning rod for MAGA followers, though. In the days since Trump's announcement, the technologist has faced hate speech and racism directed not just at him but also at Indians and legal immigration in general. Krishnan declined a request to comment on this story.
The backlash began with a tweet from the far-right activist Laura Loomer, who criticized his appointment as "deeply disturbing" and said it conflicted with Trump's "America First" agenda.
Loomer accused Krishnan of advocating to "remove all restrictions on green-card caps" and enabling foreign workers to take jobs from American STEM graduates, citing Silicon Valley's reliance on international talent as a threat to domestic innovation. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who was Trump's initial pick for attorney general before withdrawing amid controversy, accused "tech bros" of engineering "an immigration policy."
H-1B visa debate
Rahul Menon, an Indian-born engineer from Rhode Island and the host of "Area 51," a podcast about immigration, believes hate speech directed at Krishnan reflects broader misconceptions about skilled immigrants in the US.
"They just assume we are here to steal everyone's jobs," Menon told Business Insider. "If people understood the process of getting through an H-1B and the number of hoops you need to jump through, it's insane. The hate that Sriram is getting is just the beginning. You just need a thick skin to do the job."
Some of the scorn has been directed at H-1Bs, a type of visa that Silicon Valley companies and tech outsourcing firms often use to hire foreign workers in the US. The visa program is overwhelmed by a huge number of applications for a limited number of slots each year, so it operates on a lottery system. Bloomberg News reported earlier this year on a practice known as "multiple registration," in which companies apply for multiple H-1B visas for one job candidate, increasing the odds that person will be chosen. The fraud has kept thousands of qualified applicants from obtaining these skilled-worker visas.
Recent optimism
Menon said that optimism around addressing the green-card backlog has been steadily growing, fueled by statements from high-profile figures. During a June appearance on the "All-In" podcast, hosted by VCs including Sacks, Trump expressed support for granting green cards to all US college graduates. Trump also recently voiced support for H-1B visas.
Menon sees Krishnan's appointment as the latest in a series of developments that have boosted the morale of advocates for changes to the US immigration system.
"It started with Trump saying that, then with Vivek, and now with Sriram — it's the cherry on top," Menon said, referring to Vivek Ramaswamy, another Trump advisor whose parents immigrated from Kerala, India. Ramaswamy has repeatedly called for the H-1B lottery system to be replaced with a merit-based selection process.
'AI stands for artificial intelligence, not American Indian'
Others remain skeptical about Krishnan's ability to influence immigration policy in his new role.
Sacks addressed the speculation directly in a tweet: "Sriram has been a US citizen for a decade. He's not 'running America.' He's advising on AI policy. He will have no influence over US immigration policy." The post appeared aimed at calming criticism from MAGA loyalists and quelling hope among some Indian immigrants that Krishnan's appointment would lead to changes in the system.
Ash Arora, a partner at the VC firm LocalGlobe and a friend of Krishnan and his wife, cautioned against reading too much into Krishnan's role in immigration reform.
"Sriram has been hired for AI — and AI stands for artificial intelligence, not American Indian," she told Business Insider. "I'm not sure whether Sriram will have a say in immigration matters, but the optimism about legal immigration being fixed, in my opinion, is misguided."
Ultimately, Krishnan is an AI policy advisor, Menon said. "I'd like to hope things will change. But let's not count our chickens before they've hatched."