'Indentured servants': JD Vance on H-1B workers as US stops tech firms from green card programme

US Vice President JD Vance has accused Microsoft and major technology corporations of exploiting the H-1B visa system to replace American workers with lower-paid foreign staff, calling foreign employees brought in by outsourcing firms "indentured servants."

The rhetoric accompanied a sweeping crackdown by the Trump administration, which suspended Microsoft and several global tech giants from the primary programme used to sponsor foreign workers for employment-based green cards amid allegations of fraud and wage suppression.

Vance outlined stark wage discrepancies between American employees and foreign workers brought in on temporary visas. According to data cited by the Vice President, foreign professionals on H-1B visas earn $20,000 less on average than US citizens in identical positions, with the pay gap widening to $48,000 for workers hired through foreign outsourcing firms.

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Vance alleged that major corporations systematically utilise these wage disparities to maximise corporate profits at the expense of domestic labour.

"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," Vance said.

"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," he added.

Singling out Microsoft, Vance pointed to the software giant's workforce decisions during 2025 as a primary example of corporate misuse. He revealed that Microsoft laid off 6,000 American employees after certifying to federal authorities that it could not find qualified domestic workers for those roles.

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During that same period, the company secured approval for more than 6,000 H-1B visas and filed 3,682 applications for permanent labor certification, known as PERM. Federal reviews indicated that nearly 1,000 of those permanent residency applications matched positions previously held by the laid-off American staff.

In response to these findings, the US Department of Labor suspended Microsoft from participating in the PERM programme, which serves as the required initial step for employers seeking to sponsor foreign workers for US permanent residency.

US Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling stated that the administration's actions extend far beyond a single firm, confirming that several other prominent technology and consulting companies — including Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, Capgemini, and Adobe — have also been suspended from the sponsorship programme.

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The enforcement push has also reached higher education. Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito confirmed that subpoenas have been served to nine major universities, including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, following allegations that international students were brought in to fill position roles that undercut American wages.