US Vice-President JD Vance on Sunday defended his description of H-1B visa workers as “foreign indentured servants”, invoking his Indian in-laws while conceding that his “rhetoric may have been imperfect”. The remarks, made during a town hall event, were his most detailed response yet to a controversy that has strained ties with New Delhi and rattled the Indian diaspora.
Asked about the remark, JD Vance spoke about his wife’s family, who immigrated to America from South India. “You know where my family comes from, and I love my mother-in-law and father-in-law who immigrated from South India, and obviously their daughter, born in the United States of America, is now the second lady, and I’m very proud of her, and I love her very much,” he said. His wife, Usha Vance, is the daughter of Indian immigrants and the first Indian-American Second Lady of the United States.
JD Vance insisted his criticism was aimed at the visa system and the employers who exploit it — not at the workers themselves. “When I say an indentured servant, that’s not a criticism of the H-1B visa holder, that’s a criticism of the visa system,” he said, describing companies that rely on the programme as “visa mills”. He added: “I will tell you that nobody’s perfect, certainly not me. But my goal here is not to dehumanise any immigrant, and in fact, I love a number of immigrants.”
JD Vance invokes his Indian in-laws in H-1B defence
The personal turn in JD Vance’s defence came after days of backlash. The controversy began earlier this month when the administration suspended several firms — including Microsoft, Cognizant, Infosys, TCS, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini — from the Permanent Labour Certification (PERM) programme, the first step for foreign workers on H-1B and other visas to obtain a green card. Announcing the move, JD Vance urged US companies to hire more American workers and to “stop importing an indentured servant to do a job that an American worker would happily do”. The Indian government called the remarks deeply offensive, and Indian professionals — who account for over 70 per cent of all approved H-1B petitions annually — reacted with anger.
JD Vance, PERM and the ‘indentured servants’ fallout
At the heart of JD Vance’s argument is a claim about fairness in hiring. He argued that companies should give local workers a fair chance before recruiting abroad, citing the example of a major corporation that fires an existing employee to bring in a foreign worker: “That’s not fairness,” he said. He contended that current rules give employers too much control over workers, because employees fear losing their jobs — and being sent back to their home countries — if they complain about working conditions. The PERM suspensions, he said, were meant to address a practice that has shut Americans out of the job market.
The row comes at a sensitive moment for US-India ties. Beyond the PERM suspension, the administration has tightened scrutiny of skilled-worker programmes that Indian professionals depend on, while New Delhi has pushed back publicly against language it considers demeaning. How the two governments manage the fallout — and whether the suspended companies are readmitted to the green-card pipeline — will shape the practical consequences of a controversy that began with two charged words.
The administration has not said whether the suspended firms will be readmitted to the PERM programme, or what criteria would govern any return.
JD Vance’s balancing act on immigration
JD Vance framed his position as a balance between welcoming contributors and protecting American workers. “We can have a respect and a welcome to people who want to contribute to the United States of America,” he said, while insisting that rapid immigration could undermine social cohesion. Whether the clarification calms the diplomatic storm remains to be seen: India has objected strongly, the diaspora remains uneasy, and the PERM suspension affecting Indian IT majors is still in force. For now, the Vice-President’s message is that his target was never the visa holder — it was the system.