Des Moines Sun

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) have sent letters to ten major U.S. companies, questioning their hiring practices after mass layoffs of American workers while simultaneously filing thousands of H-1B visa petitions for foreign employees.

“In evaluating the high unemployment rate for American tech workers, we cannot ignore the massive, ongoing layoffs ordered by you and your peers in Big Tech C-suites over the past few years … At the same time you have been laying off your employees, you have been filing H-1B visa petitions for [thousands of] foreign workers,” Grassley and Durbin wrote in their letters.

“With all of the homegrown American talent relegated to the sidelines, we find it hard to believe that [you] cannot find qualified American tech workers to fill these positions,” they added.

The senators are seeking information from each company about their recruitment processes and whether there are differences in salary or benefits between H-1B visa holders and U.S. employees.

This inquiry comes as unemployment among recent STEM graduates is reportedly higher than the national average, according to data from the Federal Reserve. The overall jobless rate in America’s tech sector is described as “well above” that of other sectors.

Grassley and Durbin have worked together on H-1B visa reform legislation in the past, including as lead authors of the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act.

The companies addressed include Amazon, Apple, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Deloitte, Google, JPMorgan Chase, Meta, Microsoft, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and Walmart. Some of these firms are under investigation for alleged discriminatory practices related to H-1B hiring or firing decisions.

For example:

- Amazon laid off tens of thousands of employees while securing approval for 10,044 new H-1B hires.

- Apple reduced its workforce multiple times before being approved for 4,202 H-1B hires.

- Cognizant Technology Solutions received approval for 2,493 H-1B hires; a federal jury found it favored South Asian visa holders over Americans.

- Deloitte was approved for 2,353 H-1B hires; a study reported it pays these workers less than U.S. citizens.

- Google cut tens of thousands of jobs but received approval for 4,181 new H-1B hires.

Other companies named also conducted significant layoffs before applying for thousands of skilled worker visas.

Tata Consultancy Services is currently being investigated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding claims it replaced older American staff with newly hired foreign workers on visas.