Trump freezes green cards for 8 tech giants including Microsoft and India's Infosys, Tata, Wipro and HCL

The Trump administration on Thursday announced the suspension of a key employment-based green card process for eight major technology and outsourcing companies, including India's Infosys, Tata, Wipro and HCL, as Vice President JD Vance launched a sweeping crackdown on alleged visa fraud.

The action also covers Cognizant, Capgemini, Microsoft and Adobe. It prevents the companies from filing new permanent labour certification applications and halts the processing of pending applications under the programme.

US Labour Secretary Keith Sonderling announced the decision at a press conference led by Vance, saying the action followed ongoing criminal and federal investigations.

"Due to ongoing criminal investigations led by the Department of Labour's Inspector General Anthony DiEsposito, who will get into this shortly, I am hereby suspending from the Permanent Labour Certification Programme some of the largest IT outsourcing firms in the world, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini," Sonderling said.

He added that Microsoft and Adobe were also being suspended because of multiple active federal investigations.

"We will not accept or process any pending permanent labour certification applications involving these companies," he said.

The Permanent Labour Certification programme, commonly known as PERM, is a crucial step for many employers seeking employment-based permanent residence for foreign workers.

Sonderling said the companies named in the action had collectively requested nearly three million foreign workers since 2009. They had received more than 230,000 H-1B visa approvals and over 100,000 permanent labour certifications, according to figures he presented.

The administration did not release company-specific findings or details of the alleged violations during the press conference.

Vance accused employers of using the H-1B programme to replace American workers with lower-paid foreign employees.

"The H-1B visa programme is meant to allow companies to bring in really the best of the best from outside the United States of America for positions that are completely impossible to fill with American workers," he said.

He singled out Microsoft, alleging that the company had laid off 6,000 American workers while benefiting from 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards.

"There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has abused the system more than Microsoft," Vance added, according to Reuters.

Vance said the administration wanted companies to change their hiring practices rather than leave the American market.

Asked whether the suspension was temporary or permanent, he said, "The suspension of PERM is gonna last as long as it needs to."

He added that the administration had tools to continue the suspension indefinitely but wanted companies to improve their behaviour.

Vance alleged that outsourcing companies helped American corporations recruit lower-paid foreign workers, undermining wages and employment opportunities for US citizens.

"These firms are as complicit or maybe more so complicit in the visa fraud than any American corporation," he said.

He claimed that H-1B employees earned about $20,000 less annually than American citizens working in comparable positions.

The Justice Department also announced that it was actively investigating companies suspected of favouring foreign workers over Americans.

Attorney General Todd Blanche said criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits were among the possible enforcement measures.

Affecting India's IT giants

The announcement could have significant implications for Indian technology professionals and outsourcing companies operating in the United States.

Indian IT companies have long relied on employment-based visa programmes to deploy skilled professionals to American clients. The H-1B programme permits temporary employment in qualifying specialised occupations, while permanent labour certification is part of a separate process through which employers may sponsor workers for permanent residence.

The suspension announced on Thursday concerns permanent labour certification applications involving the named companies. It does not, by itself, establish the cancellation of existing H-1B visas or green cards.

Since taking office, ⁠US President Donald Trump has pursued a broad effort to reduce the number of foreign-born people in the US and curtail their ‌pathway to residence and citizenship.

The company said in a statement that about 80% of the H-1B applications it filed in the last fiscal year were to extend or change the status of current employees, not to hire new workers. In July, ​the company said it would cut 4,800 jobs, or about 2.1% of its global workforce.

Indo-Asian News Service