For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law
Will they learn their lesson? Find out next time!
Citizens United means unlimited money in politics is free speech, they can always give more. Often, non-monetary tributes to the king, praise or peace prizes, go much further.
The corporate-government corruption is out of hand and I am glad more people are making it a top political issue. I have my doubts this latest from the admin will make a positive difference. It's primarily performative politics for the base with zero consideration for secondary effects or real causes.
Even if the claim is valid I’m sure the enforcement is targeted.
You think they’d go after palintir or spacex for the same issues?
I'm never sure how to feel about this kind of thing. On one hand, it's kind of interesting to see the self-destruction, and having qualified people return to Europe can only be a good thing for Europe. OTOH, it's scary to see, and I'm unsure whether I prefer a world where China gains much more power.
What's really interesting to see is your blindness to that self destruction.
Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said other companies that would be suspended from the Permanent Labor Certification Program included Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., Infosys Ltd., Tata, Wipro Ltd., HCL Technologies Ltd., and Capgemini SE. He said there were multiple active federal investigations ongoing into the matter.Even if you're a laborer, it's quite hard to argue that the absolute pinnacle of the labor pool is dragging down your wages and not increasing total jobs.
If other countries are giving you better alternatives, why bring your talents to the US?
Neoliberalism ignored domestic worker concerns for shareholder returns and corporatism, and an alternative was offered, here we are. It’s a natural experiment we might not otherwise had had the opportunity to run.
The current K shaped economy being just the beginning. The elites realised that making more money wont change much for them, but they can make everyone else poor and then live as feudal lords.
Compared to having someone move to the US, does hiring a remote worker help or hinder the US economy?
But that raises the debate ... does the US really need to export MORE of its culture at taxpayer/citizens expect ? :|
As to the pause, repeal, destruction of this program, etc., however its characterized eventually, it seems to be inline with the idea of moving much of the manufacturing that left back home as well.
That's not what the program is for. If that's the goal they can create a visa program with that objective. The current one had the objective of filling positions that can't be met otherwise, and is indeed a farce and fully abused to suppress wages.
I suspect a bunch of top global talent will instead start companies elsewhere and our tech economy will suffer.
An immigrant gave me my first decent job, immigration is a net benefit. We get the smartest people and the best food. You can come here and within a decade be just as American as anyone else.
I can never become Japanese though. Ohh well.
They start the most businesses, they staff specialty roles like doctors, nurses, researchers, engineers. They put down roots and innovate. After 2-3 generations of course their kids are the same as every other American.
But first and second generation immigrants are far more driven and that shows up. They'll do the dirty jobs if they don't have an education, and if they do have an education they're going to be going for high impact roles.
Since we're going nativist long term I expect we're going to see innovation and productivity drop. It's not a one year change, but over generations we can expect to see the impact. Additionally immigration has been helping stave off our demographic rollover since our birth rate is relatively low. Without immigration which both increase working age population and tend to have more kids per capita than the native born Americans, we can expect the same demographic problems other countries are already dealing with.
How will we manage our giant deficit as productivity slows?
* H1B visas are work permits issued to foreign-born workers sponsored by a company to work in the USA. These visas are bound to a specific employer with limited ability to transfer elsewhere, and on their own have ZERO ability to convert to a Green Card
* Green Card is Legal Permanent Residency (LPR), the first real step towards Naturalization. It lets you live and work anywhere in the USA, provided you generally contribute more than you receive in benefits (though this is very fungible depending on political incentives). Obtaining a Green Card is incredibly hard to do outside of family, with employer sponsorship being one of the few other viable routes.
So what seems to be happening here is that the regime wants to block Microsoft et al for applying for Green Cards for workers currently on H1B visas - not unheard of, but a rarity among the hordes of H1Bs employed yearly by technical firms. I suspect the goal is to discourage workers abroad from applying for H1Bs since employer green card sponsorship is off the table, but it won’t necessarily stop green cards via other routes (like marriage). It also doesn’t address the real grievances around H1Bs themselves, like how it coerces labor into taking more toxic or abusive working environments and lower wages while also robbing domestic workers of opportunities.
In other words, and assuming I’m understanding this messaging correctly (a big if), this is a nothingburger. It doesn’t stop H1B abuse, it doesn’t help American workers, and it punishes the handful of folks who deserve the Green Card conversion from their employers. It’s a packet of lies and misdirection meant to look bigger than it actually is.
This administration is 100% anti-immigrant. It's also incredibly racist. For example, in the last financial year, all but three refugee visas were issues to white South Africans fleeing a completely made up "genocide" [2].
But the H1B/PERM process is absolutely abused although Microsoft wouldn't be top of my list. Top would be all the Indian outsourcing companies (some or all of whom are suspended by this too btw). Here's how it works:
1. File for hundreds of thousands of H1Bs for Indian born engineers and IT professionals;
2. Because the quota has been vastly exceeded a third or less win the "lottery". You, as the employer, don't really care;
3. Bring them to the US and, in many cases, illegally underpay them. For example, withholding wages if they're not outsourced to another company;
4. H1Bs a 3 year visas with a 3 year extension allowed before needing to leave the US for at least a year but there's a loophole that if a PERM is filed for you before the 6 years is up, you can stay in the US until it's resolved. But green cards have per-country quotas (IIRC 7% per country of birth). This creates a massive backlog that will last 10-20+ years in which the employee effectively can't leave. They are essentially in indentured servitude and the employer can underpay and mistreat them without consequence.
This needs reform.
Anyway, if the likes of Tata and Infosys can no longer file green cards, this will kill the H1B funnel. Indian-born professionals won't subject themselves to this pipeline. Or maybe they will in the hopes that a future administration will change it? But if you don't have the green card filed within your 6 years, you need to leave anyway.
I'm generally anti this administration in pretty much every way but I support not being able to file for H1Bs if you've done layoffs in the last ~2 years. Let companies retrain people they've hired. Figure it out.
[1]: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/international-b...
[2]: https://www.npr.org/2026/06/26/nx-s1-5869796/the-white-genoc...
That said, it seems this is targeting body farms. Firms that specialize in corrupting the process. Yes some people they bring over have unique talents, but a lot of them are run of the mill folks looking to become “manager” so they can attract a mate back home.
It was directed to audit them less, because they were complaining about being audited as much as other organizations. Yet another case where conservatives make themselves victims out of nowhere, to get preferential treatment and then continue pretend they were victims after proven wrong.
You might say “okay there’s still some corporate-cons who’ll take my money and do what I ask” but then there’s guys like Miller pulling the strings whose entire purpose is opposed to yours.
This might sound crazy, but maybe getting behind a stable and predictable gov't that has ensured corporate dominance for over a century would have been a smarter strategy? But hey what do I know…
Microsoft and others are more focused on building data centers (homes for agents) than hiring humans at this point.
It also exists non-domestically...
It still matters a bit for architectural direction - but those roles are so few I wouldn’t be concerned as an American.
But I'm surprised that Microsoft is accused doing it. I was under the impression that Microsoft will sponsor your green card but is still very strict about whom they hire and retain, regardless of immigration status. But maybe that has changed?
Tata, Infosys, HCL, and similar body shops are definitely a different story.
I mean, we don't really need that west coast comp either? If I was pulling my old FAANG comp here in Spain, I'd be in the top 0.1% of earners...
As for non-protected roles, global market participation has ups and downs.
verdverm•37m ago
not much in there beyond the headline but quotes from the admin
superkuh•31m ago
"The Trump administration said Thursday that it would suspend an immigration program for multiple tech firms, including Microsoft Corp., alleging widespread abuse of a worker visa system. “There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has abused this system more than Microsoft,” Vice President JD Vance said, during a briefing in Washington. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said other companies that would be suspended from the Permanent Labor Certification Program included Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., Infosys Ltd., Tata, Wipro Ltd., HCL Technologies Ltd., and Capgemini SE. He said there were multiple active federal investigations ongoing into the matter. The move is the latest by the Trump administration to crack down on legal and illegal pathways to migration. The program at issue allows US employers to help sponsor foreign workers for permanent residency. “Microsoft is a great American company, and we have a great relationship with them, they do a lot of important things,” Vance said Thursday. “Our message to Microsoft is not that we want to harm your company. It’s that we want your company to thrive, but we want it to thrive by employing and empowering your fellow Americans.” Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment."
garbawarb•24m ago
egorfine•15m ago
peezd•8m ago
falsemyrmidon•18m ago
verdverm•6m ago
swiftcoder•3m ago
bradleyankrom•30m ago
> Vance said Thursday, “If you do the math, for every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants.” Vance spoke in a White House news conference announcing the decision.
[0] https://apnews.com/live/trump-midterm-elections-news-updates...
dfxm12•19m ago
https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/new-aclu-afl-cio-report-...
Centigonal•15m ago
vkou•9m ago