India’s government has called Vice President JD Vance’s remarks about foreign workers on H-1B visas “deeply offensive,” pushing back against the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on alleged abuses of employment-based immigration programs.

The dispute followed Vance’s defense of the administration’s decision to suspend Microsoft and several major information technology companies from the federal Permanent Labor Certification, or PERM, program, which allows employers to sponsor eligible foreign workers for permanent residency.

Vance argued that companies have exploited the H-1B system to replace American employees with lower-paid foreign workers, criticizing businesses that lay off domestic workers while continuing to rely on imported labor.

“The H-1B visa program is meant to allow companies to bring in really the best of the best from outside the United States of America for positions that are completely impossible to fill with American workers,” Vance said during an October 8 announcement. “Unfortunately, the program has become rife with fraud over the last several years, probably the last several decades.”

He accused companies of using questionable recruitment practices to claim they could not find qualified American applicants before hiring workers from abroad.

Vance also argued that the visa system can leave foreign employees vulnerable to exploitation because their ability to remain in the United States is tied to their employment.

“When somebody comes in on an H-1B, they are completely subordinate to that company,” he said. “If they lose that job, they have to leave the country.”

The vice president pointed specifically to Microsoft, saying the company laid off approximately 6,000 American workers while benefiting from 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards. He argued that the figures raised questions about whether the program was being used to fill genuine labor shortages or reduce companies’ labor costs.

“Our message to Microsoft is not that we want to harm your company,” Vance said. “It’s that we want your company to thrive, but we want it to thrive by employing and empowering your fellow Americans.”

The Labor Department’s actions also affected major outsourcing companies, including Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and HCL, according to reporting on the suspensions. The administration said the measures were connected to investigations into alleged misuse of employment and immigration programs.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs rejected Vance’s characterization of foreign workers, arguing that Indian professionals contribute significantly to American economic growth and technological innovation.

“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 added that immigrants have helped shape American prosperity and said the terminology Vance used carried painful historical and colonial associations.

Microsoft, meanwhile, has defended its employment practices, saying H-1B employees receive pay comparable to other workers performing similar jobs and that most of its U.S. workforce consists of Americans.

The dispute highlights a broader disagreement over whether employment-based visa programs are filling specialized positions that American employers struggle to staff or allowing companies to reduce labor costs at the expense of domestic workers. The administration has argued that legitimate recruitment of highly specialized talent should continue while alleged fraud and displacement of American employees are addressed.