Amazon, Apple, Google, and other tech giants are facing a bipartisan storm in Washington as lawmakers ramp up scrutiny of their labor practices, particularly the use of the H-1B visa program. In a rare show of unity, Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a pointed letter on September 24, 2025, to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, demanding answers about the company’s recent layoffs and its continued reliance on foreign workers.
The senators’ letter, as reported by Reuters, cited that Amazon cut at least hundreds of jobs in its Amazon Web Services cloud computing unit during the summer of 2025, even as it continued to sponsor H-1B visa holders. In fact, Amazon received approval for at least 10,044 H-1B workers in fiscal year 2025—nearly double the number approved for the next-highest employer. The lawmakers didn’t mince words. “With all of the homegrown American talent relegated to the sidelines, we find it hard to believe that Amazon cannot find qualified American tech workers to fill these positions,” wrote Senators Chuck Grassley and Dick Durbin in the letter.
This move comes after years of mounting frustration over the H-1B visa program, which allows U.S. companies to hire highly skilled foreign workers for specialized roles. Critics argue that the program, originally intended to address labor shortages, now enables corporations to replace American workers with cheaper labor. According to federal data, India accounts for about 72% of H-1B recipients, with China representing another 12%—a fact that has fueled concerns about the impact on domestic employment.
Senators Grassley and Durbin, longtime partners on H-1B visa reform and lead authors of the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act, are not just singling out Amazon. Similar letters were sent to Apple, Cognizant, Deloitte, Google, JPMorgan Chase, Meta, Microsoft, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and Walmart, among others. The senators are seeking detailed explanations about whether these companies are displacing U.S. workers, how they set wages for foreign hires, and if they conceal H-1B recruitment ads from the general public. The deadline for Amazon to respond is October 10, 2025.
The scope of the issue is staggering. Apple, which made at least four rounds of workforce reductions in 2024 and laid off hundreds of workers, applied for and received approval to hire 4,202 H-1B workers in fiscal year 2025. Cognizant, which laid off thousands of workers, applied for 2,493 H-1B workers; a 2024 federal jury found the company favored South Asian H-1B visa holders over American employees, resulting in punitive damages. Deloitte, after laying off over a thousand employees, applied for 2,353 H-1B workers. A 2024 Journal of Business Ethics study found Deloitte pays H-1B holders 10 percent less than American citizens.
Google, which laid off tens of thousands of employees in recent years, applied for 4,181 H-1B workers in fiscal year 2025. JPMorgan Chase, despite $15 billion in second-quarter profits, conducted multiple rounds of layoffs and applied for 2,440 H-1B workers. Meta, after laying off 3,600 employees in 2025, applied for 5,123 H-1B workers. Microsoft, which laid off 16,000 employees in 2025 despite record revenue, applied for 5,189 H-1B workers. Tata Consultancy Services planned to lay off over 12,000 employees, including Americans, and sought 5,505 H-1B workers; the company is under investigation for allegedly firing older American employees in favor of H-1B holders. Walmart, after terminating 1,500 employees due to “technological changes,” applied for 2,390 H-1B workers.
“Corporations rigged the system to flood the country with cheap foreign labor and drive down wages,” said Republican Senator Jim Banks of Indiana, who introduced legislation in September 2025 to raise the minimum H-1B salary to $150,000, end the Optional Practical Training program for foreign graduates, and replace the lottery-based distribution with a bidding model, as reported by DX. President Donald Trump has also weighed in, announcing in mid-September that companies would be required to pay a $100,000 fee for each new H-1B petition, alongside proposed changes to prioritize higher-skilled and higher-paid applicants.
But the debate is far from one-sided. Not all Democrats are on board with tightening the rules. At the end of President Joe Biden’s term, his administration loosened H-1B visa regulations: broadening the definition of a specialty occupation, extending cap exemptions for research organizations, and even proposing to use the H-1B as a path to legal status for DACA recipients. Some Senate Democrats, including Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, have called for further expansion of the program, according to The Hill.
Meanwhile, the economic backdrop is increasingly tense. The unemployment rate in America’s tech sector is “well above” the overall jobless rate, according to the Federal Reserve. Recent American graduates with STEM degrees now face higher unemployment than the general population. Lawmakers say the gap between federal rules and actual hiring practices has left thousands of young American engineers and computer science graduates unemployed or underemployed.
The Department of Labor requires that H-1B wages match or exceed the local prevailing wage rate. However, the definition of “prevailing wage” is broad and, critics argue, easily manipulated. This has led to concerns about wage suppression and deteriorating working conditions for both American and foreign workers. Senate Judiciary Democrats posted pointedly on X: “Fire American workers. Blame it on ‘AI’ or ‘tech advances.’ File thousands of visa petitions. Underpay foreign workers in worse working conditions. This can’t continue.”
Companies have largely remained silent as scrutiny mounts. Amazon, Walmart, Apple, Alphabet, Meta, and Cognizant did not respond to requests for comment as of September 29, 2025, according to Reuters. Texas Instruments, which has employed 937 H-1B workers since 2020 and faced similar criticism, also declined to comment when contacted by DX.
So, what’s next? With Congress demanding answers and the White House moving ahead with new restrictions, the future of the H-1B visa program is at a crossroads. Both sides of the political aisle are weighing reforms, each with their own vision of what American competitiveness should look like. For now, the only certainty is that the debate over foreign labor, domestic jobs, and corporate responsibility is far from over—and the decisions made in the coming months will shape the landscape for both workers and companies for years to come.