Elon Musk, the American billionaire and close ally of President-elect Donald Trump in the 2024 US president elections, has praised "talented Iranians" who have immigrated to America, amid concerns over the incoming administration’s potential tougher stance on immigration.
"America has benefited from an influx of very talented Iranians," Elon Musk said in a Saturday post on X, the platform he acquired for $44 billion in October 2022.
He made the remarks in reply to a personal story shared by Farzad Mesbahi, an X user born to Iranian immigrants who recounted the challenges his family faced after moving to the US and reflected on his evolving perspective on the future during the Trump era.
Exiled Iranian crown prince, Reza Pahlavi, confirmed Musk's statement, saying "Iranians have built some of America’s greatest companies."
"They can also play a transformational role in their home country by helping rebuild a prosperous Iran after the fall of the Islamic Republic. That new Iran will benefit its people, America, and the world," the prince said in a post on his X account.
Musk's praise of Iranian immigrants comes amid increasing uncertainty about the incoming Trump administration's measures against immigrants.
Trump made immigration a central focus of his campaign, pledging to establish what he terms "unprecedented order" at the southern border and initiate the largest mass deportation of undocumented immigrants in the nation’s history on his first day in office.
During his campaign, Trump labeled immigration as a crisis and pledged to act quickly to enforce a range of controversial policies aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration and limiting new arrivals.
“We are going to fix our borders. … We want people to come back in, but... they have to come in legally,” Trump said during his victory speech in Florida on Tuesday.
Back in March 2017, Trump signed the Executive Order 13780, better known as the Muslim Ban, which imposed restrictions on the travel of people from six majority-Muslim countries including Iran. The travel ban set off mass confusion at airports and even the agencies in charge of implementing it, as they did not know how the order will affect US green card holders and people who hold dual citizenship.
