The US Labour Department announced on Friday the launch of “Project Firewall,” an aggressive enforcement initiative targeting employers who abuse the H-1B visa programme, marking an expansion of government oversight that could impact Indian technology companies.
The initiative will see labour secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer certify investigations, leveraging existing authority to pursue employers suspected of non-compliance with visa regulations.
“The Trump administration is standing by our commitment to end practices that leave Americans in the dust,” Chavez-DeRemer said. “Launching Project Firewall will help us ensure no employers are abusing H-1B visas at the expense of our workforce.”
The enforcement crackdown specifically targets practices that critics say are widespread among outsourcing firms: hiring foreign workers at below-market wages, failing to recruit qualified Americans, and using H-1B workers to replace existing US employees. Several Indian companies have faced previous penalties, including a $34 million settlement paid by Infosys in 2013 over visa fraud allegations.
The announcement represents a second front in the Trump administration’s assault on the H-1B programme, coming just hours before the president signed an executive order imposing a $100,000 annual fee on H-1B visas.
Together, the measures could force Indian technology firms, which have faced longstanding accusations of undercutting American wages and displacing domestic workers, to make significant business changes. Indians receive approximately 70% of all H-1B visas, with major Indian IT services companies like Infosys, TCS, and Wipro among the programme’s heaviest users.
The department will coordinate with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and US Citizenship and Immigration Services to investigate violations that could result in back wages for affected workers, civil penalties, and debarment from future H-1B programme participation.
The initiative leverages federal authority allowing the labour secretary to launch investigations when “reasonable cause” exists that an H-1B employer is non-compliant with programme requirements.
Under existing regulations, employers must attest they will pay H-1B workers prevailing wages and have not displaced American workers, but enforcement has historically been limited.
