New Delhi, Oct. 12 -- The Trump administration's freeze on green-card sponsorship by India's top IT services firms hits a route they were already retreating from, an analysis of US government data over at least 17 years showed, raising questions on American claims of misuse.

On Thursday, the US suspended issuing permanent labour certificates to employees of eight IT services companies, effectively blocking their path from H-1B visas to permanent residency. Labour secretary Keith Sonderling said Tata Consultancy Services, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp, Infosys Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd, and Wipro Ltd, besides Capgemini, Microsoft and Adobe had received about 100,000 Program Electronic Review Management (PERM) certifications, signall...