In a move that has drawn sharp criticism, former U.S. President Donald Trump recently enacted a proclamation mandating a hefty $100,000 fee for every new H-1B visa petition filed after September 21. Reacting to this, prominent Indian Congress leader and Member of Parliament, Shashi Tharoor, unequivocally labeled the decision as a calculated effort to appease Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) supporters.
Speaking to ANI, Tharoor emphasized that this sudden and substantial hike in H-1B visa fees is deeply rooted in America’s domestic political landscape. He suggested that President Trump is actively seeking to solidify support from his anti-immigration constituency, particularly with the U.S. legislative elections looming in November. Tharoor elaborated, “The motives are primarily driven by domestic politics. Trump and his advisors seem convinced that easily accessible H-1B visas have allowed Indian professionals to be hired at lower salaries, thereby bypassing American workers who would command higher wages.”
The former Union Minister further connected this policy shift to the prevailing political sentiment in the U.S. He observed that the dominant forces within the MAGA movement openly espouse anti-immigrant views, especially targeting ‘visible immigrants’—individuals of diverse backgrounds who are perceived as distinct from the white ethnic mainstream. “An Indian tech professional working for sixty thousand dollars annually is, in the eyes of Trump’s supporters, displacing an American who would expect eighty-five or ninety thousand dollars for the same role,” Tharoor explained.
According to Tharoor, the dramatic increase to a $100,000 visa fee is intended to render low- and mid-level job roles financially unviable for foreign workers. The implication, he argued, is that only highly skilled, indispensable professionals, whose expertise justifies such a significant corporate expenditure, would be brought into the country.
However, the Congress MP warned that this measure could ultimately backfire on the U.S. economy. He suggested that the most logical outcome would be a surge in outsourcing. “Work previously done in America could now be easily shifted to multinational company units in Europe or their global capability centers in India,” he noted. Tharoor highlighted the paradox that Indian tech workers might still perform the same tasks for American firms, but from India rather than within the U.S., thus negating any intended domestic job protection.
Expressing significant concern for Indian IT companies, Tharoor concluded that the new fee structure would render many existing and future contracts unprofitable. He stated, “We simply cannot afford to pay one hundred thousand dollars per person for what are essentially low-end contracts.”