The Trump administration on Thursday suspended five major Indian IT companies, including Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Cognizant, Wipro and HCL, and US IT giants Microsoft, Capgemini and Adobe, from a key US programme used by employers to sponsor skilled foreign workers for permanent residency.
This did not come out of nowhere. What was then framed as a single-company probe has become a sector-wide verdict. The administration’s argument is economic nationalism dressed as fraud enforcement. Notably, though, the punishment has run ahead of the proof. The suspension has no published end date and no criminal charges have been brought so far. Due process, it appears, will follow the headline. On the diplomatic front also there are ramifications. It also strains a relationship that has been carefully rebuilt around technology, the very pillar that was meant to be insulated from trade frictions. Talent mobility has long been India’s central ask in bilateral talks; Washington has now made it a bargaining chip. One can expect pressure on the Indian government to raise it at the highest levels, but also expect Washington to argue this is domestic labour enforcement, not foreign policy. India’s challenge will be to protest firmly without appearing to defend malpractice, should any be proven. The industry must take short term as well as long term steps. In the short term, they must contest the process and protect the people. The companies should seek urgent clarity, through legal channels if needed, on the basis, scope and duration of a suspension imposed without published findings or charges. Simultaneously, they must protect affected employees: transparent communication, legal support, preserving priority dates where possible, and facilitating moves to unaffected sponsors rather than letting careers stall. NASSCOM and the Indian government should press jointly for a time-bound review, since an open-ended freeze is the real damage. ( Subimal Bhattacharjee is a policy adviser on digital tech issues and the author of ‘The Digital Decades: Thirty years of the Internet in India’ )
US Labour Secretary Keith Sonderling said the companies had requested nearly 3 million foreign workers since 2009, arguing the practice shut Americans out of the job market. Vice President JD Vance went further against Microsoft, alleging it laid off 6,000 American workers in 2025 while receiving more than 6,000 H-1B approvals and filing 3,682 PERM applications, including nearly 1,000 for positions involving workers it had laid off.
A month ago, the Labour Department’s Inspector General froze Cognizant’s filings, and the Office of Inspector General said it was investigating alleged fraud and human trafficking involving the H-1B and PERM systems. In Microsoft’s and Adobe’s case, nobody has said which agencies are investigating or what about.
