Fury erupts as Microsoft division fires 1,600 after thousands of foreign worker visas approved
A popular U.S.-based gaming brand owned by Microsoft is facing fury after mass employee layoffs occurred in the wake of the company being approved for thousands of foreign worker visas.Microsoft announced that it will lay off 4,800 people total and 1,600 from the corporation’s XBOX division, which makes and sells the dominant video game console.Meanwhile, Microsoft has been approved this year to hire from foreign countries 2,273 employer-sponsored, non-immigrant workers under what is known as the H-1B visa program, according to data from U.S.Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS).Furious online critics claim that American jobs are being unfairly handed to foreigners in an effort to cut labor costs but at the cost of leaving U.S.
workers in the lurch.“A great way to fix this is to throw anyone doing this in prison,” said one user on X.“Fire Americans to replace with thousands of visa workers? Straight to jail, and assets seized.
This story has been told countless times.Fire American staff and hire foreigners.
Over and over.”“It is the fault of our Government [sic] for approving the H-1Bs,” another social media user lamented.“Our Government [sic] has sold us out of jobs at home and those being moved to other countries.”Another user described the H-1B program as “industrial scale job theft from Americans.”Microsoft is the sixth-largest beneficiary of H-1B visas, a program that is overwhelmingly dominated by workers from India.
The company has even more H-1B applications pending.Microsoft has employees worldwide, but most are in the United States.“These decisions are based on business need, not visa status.
H-1B employees were also impacted by job eliminations in the U.S.,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Fox News Digital when reached for comment on the lay offs. “Every single employer is exploiting the H-1B visa program,” said the Project for Immigration Reform.A lawmaker even called for a complete end to the non-immigran...