IBM's pushback on foreign workers comes as Trump reverses deportation and brings up Miller.
IBM has just announced that it is ending visa and green card sponsorship for most positions at IBM Consulting, its largest division employing more than 150,000 people, a decision that gives the Trump administration a tangible victory in its campaign to pressure corporations to hire fewer foreign workers.
The move comes as the White House pursues a sweeping anti-immigration agenda that directly targets the tech industry's reliance on high-skill visa programs, most notably through a proposed $100,000 one-time fee on new H-1B petitions — a measure critics have derided as a corporate tax on foreign talent that actually comes at a cost to many employers. The administration also suspended Microsoft, Adobe and major outsourcing providers, including consulting services Cognizant, Infosys and Tata, from the permanent work certification process, a crucial step toward green cards, signaling that the pressure campaign extends well beyond fee structures into the mechanics of legal immigration itself.
IBM, for its part, framed the decision as a business calculation rather than a political retreat, with a spokesman saying its participation in high-skill visa programs has declined for years as "skills availability and customer needs have evolved" — and federal data lends some credence to that claim, showing IBM approved H-1B petitions in the fall of 00 near the fall of fiscal year 23. Just over 1,600 in fiscal year 2026. Employees affected by the change are faced with a choice: move abroad to continue with IBM or leave the company by the end of the year.