Lawmakers Probe Largest H‑1B Employers Amid Layoffs

Senators Chuck Grassley and Dick Durbin have sent letters to the largest users of H‑1B visas — including Amazon, Apple, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet/Google, Deloitte, Walmart, Cognizant and Tata Consultancy Services — demanding details on how many H‑1B workers they employ, the wages paid and whether American employees were displaced (some letters set an Oct. 10 deadline). The inquiry follows the Trump administration’s proposal to replace the H‑1B lottery with a wage‑based selection and impose a $100,000 annual fee on petitioning employers. Lawmakers said it is “hard to believe” firms laying off U.S. workers cannot fill roles domestically, highlighting a contrast between continued mass hiring of foreign specialists and recent tech‑sector layoffs; government data cited show roughly 71% of approvals went to India last year and about 11.7% to China. Reporting notes Amazon/AWS secured over 12,000–14,000 H‑1B approvals in 2025 while Microsoft and Meta each had more than 5,000, that employers typically pay most visa fees, and that the H‑1B cap remains 65,000 plus 20,000 advanced‑degree exemptions. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is considering a lawsuit over the proposed fee hike, and Grassley has also publicly pushed to curtail work authorization for student‑visa holders amid broader displacement and national‑security concerns.