(José Niño, Headline USA) Thousands of Oracle employees were told via email last Tuesday that the company had decided to eliminate their positions.
“After careful consideration of Oracle’s current business needs, we have made the decision to eliminate your role as part of a broader organizational change,” the email stated, as reviewed by Business Insider. Terminated workers were assured they would be “eligible to receive a severance package subject to the terms and conditions of the severance plan.”
The letter said nothing about what immigration filings had already made clear. The New York Post reported that data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services shows Oracle submitted approximately 3,126 H-1B petitions across fiscal years 2025 and 2026, with 436 of those applications filed during 2026 alone—the very year the company began clearing out its American workforce.
The pattern holds at Amazon as well. The retail and technology giant, which announced the removal of 16,000 corporate roles in January following the earlier elimination of 14,000 positions the previous fall, filed 2,675 H-1B petitions over that same two-year stretch. Both companies declined to respond when contacted for comment.
The H-1B program exists formally to allow companies to fill roles they cannot staff with qualified American candidates. Industry groups have consistently argued the program is indispensable to remaining competitive in fast-moving technology fields.
Opponents argue the reality is more transactional, that corporations exploit the program to access workers who will accept lower compensation and have less leverage to push back. Petitions filed for renewals and extensions of existing visas add to the raw numbers, though the timing of new applications alongside mass domestic layoffs has made that distinction feel less relevant to the workers affected.
Oracle’s cuts arrived during what has become a difficult stretch for American technology workers. The first quarter of 2026 produced 52,050 industry layoffs, a 40 percent surge compared to the same window a year earlier, according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas. Artificial intelligence is the reason most frequently cited for the acceleration. Meta has separately signaled it intends to cut up to 20 percent of its total headcount, a figure Reuters puts at roughly 15,000 positions.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
