Tech firms to hire 10,000 Americans after Trump orders review of H1-B Visas

Indian technology firm Infosys Ltd said Tuesday that it will hire 10,000 American tech workers over the next two years, following Trump’s order to review the H1-B visa program.

The hiring change comes as Infosys came under fire for abusing the H1-B visa program to bring in cheaper foreign tech workers instead of hiring locally. President Trump blasted the practice saying that there had been “widespread abuse” and signed an executive order in April seeking to overhaul work visa programs that favor foreign workers.

Infosys employs 200,000 people globally and will expand U.S. hiring by 10,000 over the next two years. The company will also be building four research hubs in the United States with the first to be completed by August in Indiana. The Indiana facility will create an estimated 2,000 jobs for American workers by 2021.

“In the fast-changing world of today, we need the ability to be local. We need to be trusted by our customers as being local,” Chief Executive Officer Vishal Sikka said in an interview. “To work with a mix of global and local talent is absolutely the right thing to do.”

The review of the visa program falls in line with President Trump’s ‘Hire American’ strategy that seeks to increase jobs in manufacturing, mining, and technology.

The Justice Department recently warned employers applying for the to consider U.S. workers first, while the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a memo laying out new measures to combat “fraud and abuse.”