“Indentured Servants”: Vance On Microsoft Hiring Foreign Workers Under H-1B

US Vice President JD Vance on Thursday accused Microsoft of abusing the Permanent Labour Certification Programme, officially known as PERM, and replacing American workers with non-Americans. Vance suspended the PERM programme for Microsoft and made it clear that they needed to hire “great American workers” instead of replacing them with “foreign indentured servants”.

The PERM programme lets firms apply for green cards, or permanent residency, for H-1B visa workers. The US government on Thursday suspended eight companies from the Permanent Labour Certification Programme, including three American firms — Capgemini, Microsoft and Adobe — and five Indian IT firms — Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro and HCL. This directly affects H-1B visa workers seeking permanent residency in the US.

“The H -1B visa is how people come into the country. The PERM program is how they…