India Criticizes Vance’s ‘Indentured Servants’ Remark Amid US Green Card Restrictions

New Delhi — India has strongly criticized U.S. Vice President JD Vance for describing foreign workers as “foreign indentured servants,” calling the language offensive and inappropriate amid the Trump administration’s decision to suspend several major IT outsourcing companies from a key employment-based green card program.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the vice president’s remarks overlooked the contributions of skilled Indian professionals to the American economy.

“We believe that such descriptions are unwarranted and ignore the fact that Indian professionals in the United States are highly educated and skilled contributors to its economy and innovation ecosystem,” the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry also emphasized the historical contributions of immigrants to the United States and criticized Vance’s choice of words.

“Indeed, the history of the United States itself has been shaped by generations of immigrants whose labour, enterprise and innovation have contributed to its growth and prosperity. Resorting to terminology that carries painful historical and colonial legacy connotations is deeply offensive,” the statement said.

India’s response followed Vance’s allegations that Microsoft had replaced American employees with foreign workers while benefiting from the H-1B visa and employment-based green card programs.

“In the last year, Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers. At the same time, the company benefited from 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards. In other words, 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 claimed.

The vice president argued that American technology companies should prioritize hiring U.S. citizens rather than relying on foreign workers.

The controversy comes as the Trump administration moves to restrict participation by several major IT outsourcing firms in the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) program, a critical step in obtaining employment-based green cards for foreign workers.

Under the administration’s decision, affected companies will be barred from submitting new permanent labor certification applications, while their pending applications will also face suspension.

U.S. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling announced the restrictions during a press conference led by Vance, citing 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 Program some of the largest IT outsourcing firms in the world, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini,” Sonderling said.

The decision affects several major technology services companies with significant operations in India and the United States, including Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and HCL.

The dispute highlights growing tensions over U.S. immigration and employment policies, particularly their impact on Indian technology professionals and companies that rely on skilled foreign workers. (Source: IANS)