‘Visa abuse was what it took to create America’s biggest companies’: Former AWS engineer defends immigrant workforce | Today’s news
Former Amazon Web Services (AWS) employee Daniel Vassallo has defended the role of immigrant workers in building the US tech industry, arguing that the presence of foreign talent has been essential to the growth of some of the country’s biggest companies.
“When Amazon brought me to Seattle to help build AWS, almost everyone in the organization was an immigrant. The ratio was probably ~20:1. This ‘visa abuse’ was necessary to create the largest US companies in the history of commerce. It made the Seattle metro area one of the wealthiest areas in the world, but let’s shut down the entire system that made it possible,” Daniel Vass wrote on X’s post.
According to him LinkedIn profile, Vassallo currently runs small bets. He has been associated with Amazon for over eight years.
His comments come amid a growing debate in the United States over the use of employment-based immigration programs by technology companies, with President Donald Trump’s administration stepping up scrutiny of foreign hiring and sponsorship practices.
The US suspends the green card program for major technology companies
On October 8, US Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling announced the suspension of several major IT outsourcing companies, including Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini, from the Permanent Labor Certification Program (PERM). The US government has also suspended participation in the program by technology companies Microsoft and Adobe, citing several active federal investigations.
The PERM program is a key step in the employment-based green card process. Generally, it requires employers to demonstrate that there are insufficient qualified U.S. workers available for the position and that the hiring of the foreign worker will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers.
The suspensions mean the Department of Labor will not accept new or pending applications for permanent labor certification involving the affected companies, according to the notice. The action pertains to the PERM program and does not in itself mean that employees of these companies will automatically lose their existing H-1B visas or green cards.
JD Vance says the H-1B visa program is full of fraud
US Vice President JD Vance criticized the use of the H-1B visa program by technology companies at a news conference on combating visa fraud, saying it aimed to fill positions that could not be filled by skilled US workers.
“The H1-B visa program is supposed to allow companies to bring in really the best of the best from outside the United States for positions that are completely impossible to fill with American workers. Unfortunately, the program has become riddled with fraud,” he said.
The administration has argued that companies must prioritize American workers and raised concerns about the use of foreign worker programs along with layoffs of domestic workers. The suspension has put big tech companies and Indian IT services firms in the spotlight as Washington expands its scrutiny of employment-based immigration pathways.