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The CEO of a popular U.S. gaming brand on Thursday was appointed to a high-level Federal Reserve task force despite ongoing fury over her company’s recent firing of 1,600 workers while being approved to hire thousands of foreign visa workers
Asha Sharma, who heads Microsoft‘s Xbox division, announced the layoffs earlier this week. Microsoft said that it will lay off 4,800 people in total, while it had been approved earlier this year to hire 2,273 foreign H-1B visa employees, according to data from U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS)
At the height of the wrath over the layoffs this week, the Federal Reserve moved forward with appointing Sharma to a newly-created advisory role within the central bank
FURY ERUPTS AS US BRAND FIRES 1,600 EMPLOYEES AFTER SECURING THOUSANDS OF FOREIGN WORKER VISAS
Asha Sharma, chief executive officer of Xbox, during the Bloomberg Tech conference in San Francisco, California, on Thursday, June 4, 2026. The event brings together the leading CEOs, investors and innovators who are harnessing technology to change the world around us.(David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Sharma will serve on a task force on “Productivity and Jobs” alongside Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen and Stanford University economics professor Charles I. Jones
“The Federal Reserve’s commitment to price stability and maximum employment is unwavering. As is our resolve to pursue our mandate with rigor,” said new Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh in a statement on the appointments
“Each task force will carefully consider whether policymakers’ means and methods, analytical tools and policy approaches can be improved upon,” he continued. “I am honored that the best minds from a range of disciplines have agreed to work with us to sharpen our performance as an institution.”
Many of the same critics who raged at Sharma, Xbox and Microsoft over the perceived replacement of American employees with foreign visa workers continued their tirades after the announcement
Microsoft said that 740 of this year’s visas were to hire employees already in the U.S. from other companies, while the other 1,533 were renewals of existing visas.
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U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh speaks during his first news conference since taking the helm at the central bank on June 17, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Warsh was appointed by President Donald Trump after former chair Jerome Powell’s tenure ended in May.(Chen Mengtong/China News Service/VCG
“It’s like asking El Chapo to lead the DEA,” one person said online
Another critic said the Federal Reserve is trying to “incentivize” mass layoff of American workers in favor of foreign ones with their hiring of the XBOX executive
“The Federal Reserve needs help firing Americans,” another person quipped
A fourth person called the move “totally unexplainable”
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Some have claimed a racial component to the importation of H-1B visa workers, the vast majority of whom come from India. Sharma has Indian heritage but was born in Wisconsin
“Reminder that she had zero gaming experience when she was promoted to run Xbox, and she has zero finance or economic experience now that she’s promoted to advise the Federal Reserve, said one X user. “Her one function is to purge white Americans and replace them with Indian cheap foreign labor.”
The Federal Reserve did not return Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Pontiac, Michigan, A rally outside the Oakland County government complex supports a proposal to require government contractors to use the federal E-Verify database to check the immigration status of job applicants.(Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance announced on Tuesday a large-scale investigation into H-1B visa fraud
“Today, I’m proud to announce that the federal Department of Labor has started dozens of subpoenas and investigations into foreign fraudsters who are trying to take advantage of the H-1B visa program,” he said during a press conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
“American jobs ought to go to American workers and not foreign fraudsters and the Department of Labor is fighting back against it.”
In response to a request for comment, Microsoft directed Fox News Digital to a post on X by a company spokesperson
“The H-1B figures being referenced are Microsoft-wide visa renewals and new hire applications. They are not specific to XBOX and represent a small percentage of Microsoft’s overall workforce. And the majority of roles impacted were not American roles,” Frank Shaw said on X, adding that XBOX is the largest employer of American workers in the gaming industry.
