Pramila Jayapal slams Trump’s Microsoft green card suspension, Vance hits back

Washington: Indian-American lawmaker Pramila Jayapal has slammed the Trump administration's decision to suspend the Green Card pathway for Microsoft, saying the move undermines legal immigration and weakens America's ability to innovate.

The Trump administration on Thursday suspended eight IT firms, including Microsoft, Tata, Infosys and Wipro, from a programme that lets foreign workers apply for green cards, arguing the practice has shut Americans out of the job market.

Also Read: TCS, Microsoft respond to US PERM suspension, reaffirm commitment to American workforce


The move is expected to affect thousands of Indian technology professionals who rely on employer-sponsored green cards for permanent residency in the US after entering on H-1B visas.

Jayapal, who hails from Washington state, home to Microsoft, said on Thursday the tech giant has led the charge on comprehensive immigration reform.

Jayapal's remarks, seen as a defence of Microsoft, drew a dig from Vice President J D Vance, who wondered whether socialism meant making available never-ending cheap labour for megacorporations.

"'Socialism' apparently means fighting like hell to ensure megacorporations have a never-ending flow of cheap labour," Vance said.

Vance announced the suspension on Thursday, accusing major tech firms and outsourcing companies of abusing the visa system at the expense of American workers.

Jayapal, a progressive Democrat from Washington state, said that the Trump administration has been consistently working to take away legal pathways for immigrants to contribute their talents to our country, and this is yet another of those attacks.

Microsoft is headquartered in Redmond in Washington state.

"You don't fix a broken immigration system by taking a hammer to legal immigration," Jayapal said.

Also Read: US suspends TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCLTech, Cognizant and three other firms from PERM green card programme

She said Microsoft has been a leader in advocating for comprehensive immigration reforms that modernise an antiquated immigration system and provide more - not fewer - legal pathways for immigrants from all over the world to work here and be with their families.

Jayapal said the Permanent Labor Certification Programme (PERM) is the first step toward an employment-based Green Card for countless workers who want to contribute to this country, and it lays out a clear process with steps to ensure that this is a net benefit to our economy and does not harm American jobs.

H-1B is a temporary work visa that allows skilled foreign workers to work in the US, generally for up to six years. PERM, meanwhile, is a permanent labour-certification process.

"Our economy, our communities, and our families depend on immigrants in many sectors, including the tech sector, and heavy-handed attacks like this only hurt efforts to build a strong, stable, and diverse base of workers who have legal pathways to come and be in the United States while also protecting US workers from unscrupulous employers," Jayapal said.

Targeting Microsoft or the PERM programme in this way simply undermines legal immigration and weakens America's ability to innovate, she said.