JD Vance’s comments about immigrants ‘unwarranted’ and ‘deeply offensive’, India’s Foreign Ministry says

India’s Ministry of External Affairs on Friday called comments by US Vice President JD Vance on Indian immigrants “unwarranted” and “deeply offensive”.

A day earlier, Mr Vance announced that Microsoft and some of India’s biggest IT services were suspended from a programme allowing workers on H-1B visas to apply for green cards. He accused the companies of abusing the system, comparing foreign workers to “indentured servants”.

“The history of the United States itself has been shaped by generations of immigrants whose labour, enterprise and innovation have contributed to its growth and prosperity,” the ministry said in a statement.

It added that Mr Vance’s comments were “unwarranted” and ignore the contributions of Indian professionals to the US economy. Roughly 70 per cent of the H-1B visas approved in 2025 went to people from India.

“Resorting to terminology that carries painful historical and colonial legacy connotations is deeply offensive,” the ministry said, appearing to refer to Mr Vance’s use of the term “indentured servants”, which carries a heavy historical burden for Indians.

During the colonial period in India, more than 1.6 million people were transported as indentured servants to serve on British, French and Dutch plantations around the world following the abolition of slavery. Many workers, who typically signed five-year contracts for unpaid labour, were tricked or coerced into service.

The indenture system is also a painful feature of American history. During the American colonial period, poor workers and convicts were bound to an employer for up to seven years, receiving no wages for their labour, in return for food, shelter and transport to the colonies. Similar to the Indian system, abuse was rampant.

“When I say indentured servants, here’s what I mean: When somebody comes in on an H-1B, they are completely subordinate to that company,” Mr Vance said at the Department of Labour on Thursday. “If they lose that job, they have to leave the country.”

The Vice President accused Microsoft, Adobe and six other companies of fraudulently utilising the H-1B visa programme, which he said is meant to allow firms to bring in “the best of the best” from outside the US to fill jobs that are impossible to fill with American workers.

This “pernicious system” is a “fundamental insult to the American way of life”, he said, as it lets companies lower wages and block Americans from jobs, while also allowing for the abuse of foreign workers.

As a result of the alleged fraudulent use of the system, the companies have been removed from the Permanent Labour Certification programme, which allows firms to hire foreign workers permanently and offers the workers the chance to apply for green cards.

The tech industry, Wall Street firms and telecoms companies have come to rely heavily on the H-1B programme through their use of IT contractors from staffing and outsourcing agencies, which have developed a lucrative business in recruiting professionals from abroad for US clients.

In the first nine months of the 2026 fiscal year, Microsoft was the fifth-highest user of H-1B visas, with 3,688, according to Bloomberg.

In a statement, Microsoft said it pays H-1B employees “the same as any other employees doing comparable work”, that its wages are among the highest of all visa filings and that the vast majority of its employees in the US are Americans.

Mr Vance’s comments came hours before US President Donald Trump gave Microsoft chief executive, Satya Nadella, the National Medal of Technology and Innovation at a summit in Washington intended to highlight US scientific leadership. And last week, Mr Nadella, alongside other tech industry leaders, visited the White House for a discussion on safeguards for AI.

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

Washington has been engaged in an across-the-board immigration crackdown since Mr Trump returned to office last year. The State Department said earlier this month that more than 250,000 visas have been revoked under the Trump administration.

Along with companies with high issuance of H-1B visas, Mr Vance also took aim at universities he said had engaged in J-1 visa fraud. He accused nine institutions, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford universities, of bringing “in foreigners to undercut the wages” of American researchers and graduate students.

J-1 visas are granted to people approved to participate in work and study programmes in the US.

“They’re using these visas way too much. They’re using them to undercut the wages of American grad students and American researchers, and it simply has to stop,” he said.