Trump admin cuts off Microsoft from major visa program, accuses tech giant of fraud and abuse
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is suspending Microsoft from a major immigration program that allows its foreign workers to transfer from an H1B1 visa to a green card, accusing the tech giant of fraud.
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“If you do the math, for every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants,” Vice President JD Vance said Thursday at an event for his government fraud task force.
Critics of the H1B1 program — which permits workers with special skills legal employment in the US — say it is overused, allows cheaper foreign workers to replace American employees, and is rife with abuse.
Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling added that some of the largest IT firms in the world would also be suspended from the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) program, including Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini, as well as Adobe.
“We will not accept any new or process any pending permanent labor certification applications involving these companies,” the newly confirmed secretary said. “Since 2009, just these companies alone have requested almost 3 million foreign workers.”
He said the actions would protect the American worker. “It begins with universities and companies that have turned into visa mills, promoting foreign workers that have lied about their qualifications to take jobs from our beloved American workers,” Sonderling said.
Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will be with President Trump on Thursday afternoon when he is expected to be awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
The Trump administration claimed it is targeting the Redmond, Wash., based company because “no company in the United States [has] abused the system more than Microsoft.” Vance accused it of being the worst offender when it comes to hiring foreign workers over Americans, charging Microsoft did so to save money on salaries.
He claimed the company laid off 6,000 American workers last year while receiving 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards. And he compared those foreign workers to indentured servants, pointing out that they are at the mercy of the company that sponsored them because if they lose employment, they can be deported.
“Our message to Microsoft is: You’re a great American company, but you’ve got to hire great American workers. You cannot lay off American workers and then replace them with foreign indentured servants,” he said.
But Lisa Monaco, who is Microsoft’s president of global affairs and is a former Deputy Attorney General under President Biden, is a longtime Trump target. The president has demanded Microsoft fire her. At DOJ, Monaco oversaw federal investigations into Trump’s handling of classified documents.
Meanwhile, Vance defended the fact that some of the top tech CEOs who are close to the president — like SpaceX’s Elon Musk and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang — came to the US on H1B1 visas.
“Obviously if that person wants to come in and build something great in the United States of America, we can support that,” he said.
