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JD Vance issued a stern H-1B warning and slammed companies like Microsoft for laying off people while continuing overseas hiring.
Vice president JD Vance slammed US companies prioritizing H-1Bs instead of giving jobs to Americans and said he does not believe in the bulls**t story that these companies can't find workers in America.
Speaking at a bipartisan event co-hosted by the Hill and Valley Forum, Vance questioned the ethics and economic logic behind mass layoffs by companies like Microsoft which is followed by an increase in H-1B applications. This suggests that these companies are laying off Americans and then applying to hire people from overseas. "You see some big tech companies where they'll lay off 9,000 workers, and then they'll apply for a bunch of overseas visas.
And I sort of wonder; that doesn't totally make sense to me," Vance said. "That displacement and that math worries me a bit. And what the president has said, he said very clearly: We want the very best and the brightest to make America their home. We want them to build great companies and so forth. But I don't want companies to fire 9,000 American workers and then to go and say, 'We can't find workers here in America.' That's a bulls**t story."
Microsoft recently laid off 9,000 employees globally and came under scrutiny for its use of the H-1B visa program. According to several social media claims. Microsoft submitted applications for more than 6,000 H-1B visas since October while they are also laying off so many employees.
'JD Vance is misleading people'
An Indian-American tech investor reacted to JD Vance's suggestion and said the vice president would not mention that many of the 9,000 laid off employees were H-1Bs too and they got no severance, no safety net and just a 60-day countdown to leave the country. "Microsoft didn’t bring in new foreign workers after laying people off , they renewed visas for long-time employees who’ve been in the U.S. legally for many many years, stuck in green card backlogs. Saying that’s “replacing Americans” is like saying letting a loyal employee stay and renew his visa in the building is the same as hiring someone new off the street. It’s not. It’s just letting them stay in the job they already earned," the tech investor wrote.
