The Trump administration is suspending Microsoft, Adobe, and other major technology companies from a program that assists skilled foreign workers in obtaining permanent residency in the United States, according to a TechCrunch report. The action also affects prominent IT outsourcing firms including Capgemini, Cognizant, HCL, Infosys, Tata, and Wipro, with the Secretary of Labor stating that the government will not accept any new or pending permanent labor certification applications involving these companies.
Vice President JD Vance announced the suspensions, alleging that companies advertise job positions in ways designed to generate minimal responses and then use the lack of applicants to justify hiring foreign workers instead of Americans. Vance noted that Microsoft laid off approximately 6,000 American workers while obtaining 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards, stating, 'If you do the math, for every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants.'
This image shows Vice President JD Vance, who announced the Trump administration's decision to suspend Microsoft, Adobe, and other major technology companies from the federal green card program for skilled foreign workers, citing fraud allegations in the H-1B visa system.
Microsoft responded that the vast majority of its U.S. employees are Americans and that about 80% of its 6,000 H-1B visa applications in the last fiscal year were to extend or change the status of existing employees rather than to hire new personnel. The suspension creates immediate practical consequences for the affected companies' hiring capabilities, as the government refuses to process new or pending permanent labor certification applications for these firms, and Vance also said the administration would investigate nine universities over alleged abuse of a program that allows international students to work in the U.S. in ways that allegedly undermine wages for American workers.