Eight tech firms suspended

The Trump administration has suspended Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies, and Capgemini from sponsoring employment-based green cards.

Vice President accuses abuse

Vice President J.D. Vance said Thursday the companies had abused H-1B visa and green card processes to replace American workers with what is effectively foreign indentured servants.

“abused H-1B visa and green card processes in order to replace American workers with what is effectively foreign indentured servants”

Universities face probes

Officials announced investigations into nine universities including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford for allegedly misusing a J-1 visa program meant for temporary educational and cultural exchanges.

Labor Secretary explains ban

Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said the administration will not accept any new or process any pending permanent labor certification applications involving the eight companies.

“We will not accept any new or process any pending permanent labor certification applications involving these companies”

Scale of H-1B hiring

Since two thousand nine, the eight companies sought to hire almost three million foreign workers, received more than two hundred thirty thousand H-1B visa approvals, and obtained over one hundred thousand permanent labor certifications.

Microsoft's record flagged

According to Labor Department data through June two thousand twenty-six, Microsoft was the largest filer of PERM applications, the first step in permanent labor certification.Vance said no company has abused the system more than Microsoft.

“There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has abused the system more than Microsoft”

Microsoft's layoffs and visas

Vance said Microsoft laid off six thousand American workers last year while obtaining six thousand three hundred H-1B visas and nearly three thousand green cards.

Vance's replacement ratio

For every worker Microsoft laid off, Vance said the company replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants.

“for every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants”

Microsoft disputes the claim

Microsoft said eighty percent of its H-1B applications in the last fiscal year were to extend or change the status of current employees, not hire new workers.

Nine universities subpoenaed

The nine universities under investigation are Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of California Davis, the California Institute of Technology, Arizona State, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Labor Inspector's warning

Labor Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito said the historic investigation into J-1 visa fraud would focus on whether foreign influence, improper financial relationships, or visa abuse were compromising federally funded research.

“I don't care how prestigious a university thinks it is. Break the law and screw the American people, and I will personally cuff you in the university square.”

Green card delays for workers

Immigration lawyers say the PERM pause will delay a common route to obtaining a green card. Workers nearing the typical six-year limit for H-1B visas without an earlier green card filing face the greatest risk.

Critics say policy backfires

Doug Rand, formerly a senior adviser at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under the Biden administration, said the policy is incoherent because a green card gives H-1B workers more freedom to switch jobs and demand…

“If the Trump administration were truly concerned that H-1B workers are 'indentured servants,' then the last thing they would do is block companies from helping their own H-1B workers get green cards”

International enrollment already falling

Last year, new J-1 research scholars across the country fell twenty-seven percent to seventeen thousand six hundred twenty-two.

Broader crackdown continues

The Department of Homeland Security proposed a seventy thousand dollar fee to apply for the Optional Practical Training program.

Previous fee struck down

Last September, the White House imposed a one-time one hundred thousand dollar fee for companies filing H-1B petitions to hire workers outside the U.S.