Trump administration suspends Green Card route for Microsoft, Infosys and 6 other IT giants in visa crackdown
Trump administration suspends Green Card route for Microsoft, Infosys and 6 other IT giants in visa crackdown
The Donald Trump administration has suspended the PERM (Program Electronic Review Management) process for eight major IT companies — Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, TCS, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini — a move that blocks H-1B visa holders at these firms from pursuing the Green Card route. The decision has triggered a fierce backlash from industry figures and the companies themselves.
Wadhwa: 'America has enjoyed the greatest free lunch in history'
Indian-American entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa strongly reacted to the suspension, arguing that the targeted companies are not the actual visa abusers. He placed the blame on recruitment intermediaries that supply labour to these firms.
"America has enjoyed the greatest free lunch in history: highly educated, highly skilled immigrants bringing their talent to its shores. Now it's snatching defeat from the jaws of victory by turning away the truly best and brightest. These companies aren't the visa abusers. The body shops exploiting the system are the ones that need to be shut down," Wadhwa said, defending Silicon Valley.
Nasscom: immigration and talent mobility are 'separate issues'
Nasscom, the apex body of Indian IT companies, described the move as a temporary suspension and sought to decouple the two policy debates.
"The H-1B visa program has historically played an important role in addressing short-term skill gaps in the US, and it will continue to be used to address short-term talent gap. However, over a number of years, Indian technology companies have significantly reduced their dependence on H-1B visas, while steadily expanding local hiring and building a strong domestic workforce in the US. They work with majority of the US Fortune 500 companies," Nasscom said.
Microsoft pushes back on 'damaging' fraud claims
Microsoft issued a statement rejecting what it called damaging allegations of visa fraud, stressing that it only files H-1B petitions for candidates who meet rigorous standards.
"We pay our employees some of the highest compensation in the tech sector, and our wages are among the highest of all H-1B filings. We pay our H-1B employees the same as any other employees doing comparable work," the company said, adding that it is ready to provide additional information to the administration.
Microsoft detailed its filing profile: "Of the approximately 6,000 H-1B visa applications we submitted in the last fiscal year, 80% were to extend or change the status of existing Microsoft employees. These were not to hire new people. The remaining filings for new employees were for individuals already legally in the United States who decided to come work for us, and they equal only 1% of our U.S. workforce. They are not new arrivals to our country."
JD Vance points to the 'bodyshops'
Vice President JD Vance, in his statement, acknowledged the role of IT bodyshops that recruit H-1B workers on behalf of the large IT giants, but noted the administration chose to target the big players to make an impact rather than chase thousands of small staffing companies.
"If you are working as an H-1B visa in the United States of America, you're earning $20,000 less than an American citizen hired in the same position. If you were brought in by one of these foreign outsourcing firms, you're making $48,000 less than an American citizen in a similar position. So I'm sure that everybody here understands the game that is being played. You bring in indentured servants from outside the country, you lay off American workers and, if you're a corporation, you make a ton of money by undercutting the wages of American workers, replacing them with people who frankly shouldn't be in the United States of America to begin with," Vance said.
It remains unclear whether the PERM suspension will eventually be lifted.