Harmeet Dhillon reacts to Ankit Gupta-YC controversy: American employers cannot discriminate against US citizens
President Donald Trump’ aide Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for Civil Rightys at the US Department of Justice, has reacted to the controversy triggered by Y Combinator partnet Ankit Gupta and said that American employers won’t be allowed to discriminate against US citizens. Dhillon also made it clear that her comment was not targeted at Gupta or YC but all tech companies that prefer to hire foreigners.Dhillon said as she worked in Silicon Valley as a tech lawyer for decades, she knows how the biggest public tech companies prefer H-1Bs to Americans and then pay them less. She said she also has an idea of how companies hire from OPT and they don’t even post jobs on regular channels and entrust foreign-born managers to hire from their own country.“These are not good business practices; they are not patriotic economic practices; and they are illegal labor practices. This administration will not allow American employers to discriminate against American workers. It is illegal, wrong, and bad for our economy. I am sure my colleagues at @USEEOC and @USDOLagree. We are all on the case, and working together to level the playing field for US workers,” Dhillon said.“This is not aimed at @ycombinator or one guy popping off — this problem permeates American industry & academia, and it’s a bipartisan scandal. The biggest violators are our biggest public tech companies—I know, because I worked in Silicon Valley as a tech lawyer for decades,” Dhillon said.
What is the Ankit Gupta-YC controversy?
Indian-origin Ankit Gupta in his now-deleted posts defended tech companies hiring H-1Bs and opined that if Americans have to be given jobs becaus of they are Americans, then it is another DEI (Diversity, equity and inclusivity). He also fought on social media on how H-1Bs work harder but all of this snowballed into a much larger controversy with YC being targeted as anti-American. YC CEO Garry Tan issued a statement and said they prefer hiring Americans.Vice President JD Vance recently said that Americans should be preferred for jobs in the US. This triggered a social media chatter as Silicon Valley depends majorly to imported skill.Paul Graham, who created Y Combinator firm in 2005, posted: ‘I believe the most qualified person should get the job”. Entered Elon Musk into the scene and he agreed with Graham. Then Ankit Gupta defended H-1B making YC vulnerable to more attacks. Graham handed the management of YC to Tan in 2025. Tan is an immigrant from Canada. And Gupta, an Indian-origin American, became a general partner of YC in 2025.
