U.S. Suspends PERM Certification for Five Indian IT Firms; Vance's 'Indentured Servants' Remark Provokes New Delhi to Strike Back Invoking 'Colonial Legacy'

According to The Hindu International, the U.S. Department of Labor has suspended the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) program for eight IT outsourcing firms. Five Indian IT multinationals were named: Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, Cognizant, and HCL. French company Capgemini, as well as U.S. firms Microsoft and Adobe, are also on the list. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling appeared at a press conference on October 8 alongside Vice President J.D. Vance, accusing these companies of using a "harmful system" to bring in foreign workers at lower wages and lay off American workers, constituting "fraud against American workers."

Vance's on-site remarks were more aggressive. "You bring in indentured servants from abroad and lay off American workers. If you're a company, you rake in profits by depressing American workers' wages and replacing them with people who, frankly, should never have been in the United States in the first place," he said. The remarks drew a strongly-worded rebuke from India's Ministry of External Affairs on October 9.

"Such descriptions are baseless and ignore the fact that Indian professionals in the United States are highly educated and make significant contributions to the U.S. economy and innovation ecosystem," the Indian MEA statement read. The statement further noted that using language carrying "painful historical and colonial legacy connotations" is "deeply offensive," and reminded the U.S. side that the United States itself "has been shaped by generations of immigrants."

According to The Hindu International, the PERM program allows companies to apply for green cards for foreign employees, provided they can demonstrate to the Department of Labor that no equally qualified American workers can be found domestically. Since 2009, the program has facilitated more than 230,000 H-1B visa approvals and 100,000 permanent residency applications, with about 70 percent of current H-1B visa holders from India.

The labor certification suspension came at a moment when Indo-U.S. economic and trade relations were already under strain. Citing sources, The Hindu International reported that U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said after talks in Washington last week that a free trade agreement was "not imminent," and Indian Finance Minister Sitharaman also acknowledged that negotiations had come to a "standstill." At the same time, New Delhi is facing potential tariff impacts from an act of sanctions against Russia and Iran — the legislation imposes U.S. tariffs of up to 100 percent on countries that import significant amounts of Russian oil. The U.S. president is expected to make a decision on this by October 18, less than two weeks before the early November midterm elections.

The Indian MEA statement noted that the suspension "does not help advance the shared vision of the two countries." It is the rule-makers in Washington who are tightening the screws simultaneously on labor visas and energy-import tariffs; it is New Delhi that bears the tightening — its IT services export lifeblood and its room for maneuver in energy procurement both exposed to U.S. discretion. By framing the moment through the lens of "colonial legacy," the statement points beyond mere words.