US suspends work visa program for Indian IT firms citing widespread abuse | Today’s news
The Trump administration has decided to suspend the immigration program for several Indian IT firms, as well as Microsoft Corp., due to widespread abuse of the work visa system.
“Unfortunately, there has been no company in the United States that has abused this system more than Microsoft,” Vice President JD Vance said at a briefing in Washington on Thursday.
Labor Minister Keith Sonderling said other companies to be suspended from the permanent labor certification program include Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., Infosys Ltd., Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Wipro Ltd., HCL Technologies Ltd. and Capgemini SE. He said there are several active federal investigations into the matter.
Vance said the suspensions would be indefinite, indicating they would remain in place until the administration believed its concerns had been addressed. The firms named by Vance and Sonderling did not immediately respond to requests for comment, as did the vice president’s office and the U.S. Department of Labor.
Shares of Cognizant fell nearly 1.4% in New York trading on Thursday, while Microsoft pared earlier gains. American depositary receipts of Infosys and Wipro were down more than 3.5%.
Action on US work visas
Silicon Valley’s reliance on foreign workers has become a flashpoint in the immigration debate, with the administration and allies pushing tech giants to do more to train and hire American workers. President Donald Trump has also moved to make it more difficult for companies to use H-1B visas to attract foreign talent, targeting a key channel for the industry.
“The fraud is that when applying for this program, they make statements that are fundamentally illegitimate and therefore ultimately illegal,” Vance said.
The suspensions marked the latest move by the Trump administration to clamp down on both legal and undocumented migration routes. The controversial program allows American employers to help sponsor foreign workers for permanent residency.
In a near-simultaneous announcement Thursday, the administration also said it had launched an investigation into foreign exchange visa holders at nine top universities, including Harvard University, Stanford University and MIT. The U.S. Department of Labor’s inspector general said the investigation will focus on J-1 visa holders, who are often international PhD candidates or visiting scholars at universities.
Vance urged companies to change their policies to hire more American workers, singling out Microsoft and Adobe Inc.
“Stop robbing the American worker. Stop importing a servant who is bound to do a job that the American worker would be happy to do,” the vice president said.
Vance’s comments attacking Microsoft came just hours before Trump is set to award the company’s CEO Satya Nadella with the National Medal of Science at a summit in Washington DC designed to highlight American technology and innovation. It also comes a week after Nadella joined other tech and AI executives at a White House lunch to discuss AI safeguards.
Permanent labor certification is the primary information retention tool for Microsoft, which is known for helping employees on guest worker visas gain permanent legal status. The Redmond, Washington-based firm has been bolstering its U.S. workforce with in-country employees on H-1B visas, as well as intra-company transfer and recent college graduate visas.
While the tech industry embraced Trump in his second term for policies that sought to ease their tax and regulatory burdens and draw investment to build AI infrastructure, the administration’s crackdown on immigration has been a sore spot. Business groups have warned that the crackdown threatens their labor supply and could impact growth.
“Microsoft is a great American company and we have a great relationship with them, they do a lot of important things,” Vance said. “Our message to Microsoft is not that we want to hurt your company. It’s that we want your company to thrive, but we want it to thrive by employing and empowering your fellow Americans.”
