Bloomberg: Lawsuits Say Indian Firm Cheated Visa Rules to Displace U.S. College Graduates

One of India’s leading companies has dodged U.S. visa laws to sneak more Indian migrants into the white collar jobs needed by U.S. graduates, according to three lawsuits described by Bloomberg.com.

The Indian company, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) allegedly imported roughly 6,500 visa workers via the poorly supervised L-1A program for foreign managers after it used up its share of visas for the better-known H-1B program for foreign workers, according to the article.

One lawsuit was filed by Anil Kini, who was brought to the United States to manage other Indian workers doing tasks subcontracted by Denver-based Western Union Co., Bloomberg reported:

Kini supervised 37 employees. All but two of his team were from India, and they had replaced Western Union’s previous [American] staff, according to Kini … In all, Kini said that of the 22 L-1A visa employees on the Western Union account, only eight performed managerial roles [as required by the visa].

“During the past decade, USCIS [the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services agency] has uncovered about 1,800 instances of fraud related to L visas,” said the article, which was headlined, “Former Staffers Say India’s Biggest IT Firm Was Gaming the US Visa System.”

The widespread fraud in the white-collar migration programs is a problem for President Donald Trump, who has successfully stopped the illegal migration of blue-collar migrants across the Mexican border.

But he has done little to counter the rising public opposition to the fraud-ridden annual migration of at least 700,000 foreign graduates into the starter jobs needed by young American accountants, engineers, software experts, and other white-collar workers.

The white-collar migration is strongly backed by several of Trump’s business backers, such as Elon Musk, and by India’s Prime Minister who met with Trump last week in the White House.

But the vast white-collar migration has already pushed millions of American graduates out of white-collar jobs — so contributing to Kamala Harris’ defeat in 2024. A February 10 article in the Washington Post outlined one example of a displaced American software manager who is learning to become a farmer:

Since being laid off from Indeed last year, [Daelynn] Moyer has applied to more than 140 jobs but received no offers. She and her wife are considering selling their house near Portland, Oregon, and buying land to farm instead — worried whatever job she finds won’t cover her mortgage. “It would be a meager existence, but it would be fulfilling,” Moyer said.

“Eliot Lee, 52, a project manager at a Utah software company, said after losing his job [that] Recruiters told him they would often receive more than 1,000 applications for a single position,” the Post added.

Bloomberg’s extensive report described three lawsuits filed by Indian employees of leading India firm, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS). The company earns profits when Fortune 500 companies use it to import Indians for outsourced work, such as software maintenance, upgrades, and operations.

In 1990, Congress set up rules that allowed companies to import Indian workers into U.S. jobs via the H-1B visa program. Roughly 730,000 foreign workers — including roughly 500,000 Indians — hold H-1B visas in U.S. white-collar workplaces.

Companies claim that H-1B workers are highly skilled. However, the annual allotment of 85,000 H-1B visas for companies is distributed via company managers and a federal lottery, ensuring the arriving workers range from unskilled graduates of low-grade Indian universities up to experienced graduates from merit-based U.S. universities.

Moreover, the huge H-1B population is only about half the resident population of roughly 1.6 million foreign contract workers in the white-collar jobs needed by U.S. graduates, including millions of STEM graduates locked out of their careers. Congress also allows companies, hospitals, and universities to import an unlimited inflow of foreign workers via several other uncapped programs — such as the J-1, TN, E-2, OPT, CPT, L-1B, and L-1A programs.

None of these programs require employers to interview American graduates for jobs before hiring cheaper foreign rivals.

The recruitment process is also skewed against Americans because many migrants are eager to work for very low wages in the hope of living in the United States and applying for legal status. Moreover, unlike Americans, visa workers can buy U.S. jobs by paying kickbacks to their co-ethnic recruiters and hiring managers, many Indians and Americans have told Breitbart News.

In the lawsuits described by Bloomberg’s article, the TCS executives imported ordinary Indian workers via the L-1a program which is reserved for managers of multinational companies.

Bloomberg reported that the federal government approved more than 90,000 L-1A visas from October 2019 to September 2023. Biden’s officials allowed the L1As to stay for five years. The visa holders are also allowed to stay permanently once they apply for green cards via a fast-track route for L-1A holders. The federal data suggests the resident population of L-1As — and for L-1As who now are legal immigrants with green card holders — could be far above 250,000.

The lawsuits described by Bloomberg say that executives directed low-level managers to justify the L-1A visa requests by claiming the requested ordinary Indian workers were actually managers:

Indian national Vinod Govindharajan says that TCS obtained his L-1A visa in 2013 by falsely stating on his visa application that he was a manager in a business development role when in fact he had no subordinates. He says that securing his L-1A visa allowed the company to circumvent tighter H-1B rules and bring him to Edison, New Jersey, where he alleges he was paid half of what his US counterparts in the same job made. Angry at TCS and struggling to pay his bills, he filed a complaint in 2018 with the EEOC, which enforces federal laws prohibiting workplace discrimination.

The EEOC investigated the matter and found “credible documentary evidence” that TCS “frequently falsifies documents in support of L-1 visa applications,” according to a “final determination” letter the agency sent to Govindharajan, his attorney and TCS in 2019. The letter also said the agency determined visa workers from India are paid at much lower rates than their American colleagues, and that TCS had retaliated against Govindharajan for raising his concerns.

But the decision remained secret because “the EEOC itself has no authority to enforce immigration laws or wage requirements tied to employment visas,” Bloomberg noted.

President Joe Biden’s deputies let the matter drop in 2023, Bloomberg reported.

Bloomberg noted that TCS denied the claims.

In response to detailed questions about the allegations and Bloomberg’s data analysis, a company spokesperson sent a statement denying any wrongdoing: “TCS does not comment on ongoing litigation, however we strongly refute these inaccurate allegations by certain ex-employees, which have previously been dismissed by multiple courts and tribunals. TCS rigorously adheres to all U.S. laws.” The company declined to provide further details.

The economic fallout from the visa programs is a political problem for incumbents in Washington D.C. Polls already show high and rising public opposition and a 2024 lurch by young Americans toward Donald Trump.

Many Americans and Indians say the visa programs are deeply corrupt because the reward for cheating far exceeds the legal risk and moral cost of cheating.

For example, U.S. investors and executives gain a stable labor market, inflated stock prices, and a compliant workforce that does not argue back to U.S. managers or quit to launch innovative products. “You’re supposed to answer [executives’ questions] in a very subservient way” when working alongside visa workers, Mary from central New Jersey, an immigrant software expert, told Breitbart News in 2020:

I would tell [the executive]  professionally what the issue was, and she didn’t like that. You can’t oppose her in any way. If she tells you “It is black,” it has to be black even if it is white. [The Indian contractors] will feed her what she wants to hear … They cater specifically to that [attitude].

When the information given to that manager is wrong, and that manager does not care, the professionalism of the field is gone.

Indian managers gain high U.S. salaries, workplace promotions, the chance to live in the United States, and the likelihood of winning U.S. citizenship for themselves and all their descendants. The lower-level foreign workers are often treated badly for workers in the United States, but they get paid far more than their home salaries and also have. Good chance of winning the huge prize of citizenship.

Meanwhile, U.S. professionals were pushed out of their Fortune 500 jobs, so killing the vital tension between professionals, managers, and investors that was key to Silicon Valley’s success. Since 2010, the sector has seen numerous failures, less churn,  and fewer innovations.

In contrast, China’s researchers do not have H-1B workers, and so have developed 5G cellphone technology, high-tech manufacturing, electric cars, Deep Seek artificial intelligence, and a new generation of biotech drugs.