In addition to criticizing institutions that bring foreign students to the United States through exchange programs, President Donald Trump’s administration said on Thursday that it was suspending Microsoft and a number of other companies from a program that permits overseas workers to apply for green cards.
Vice President JD Vance’s declaration represents the Trump administration’s most recent attack on companies and academic institutions that allow foreign workers and students to enter the nation.
Some Trump supporters have regularly attacked programs, claiming they undermine American labor and students. Proponents claim that they enable the United States to fill critical recruiting gaps and draw in the best people from around the globe.
The Republican president’s supporters have long maintained that certain programs, including H-1B visas, which Vance accused Microsoft of misusing, essentially provide American businesses the ability to hire foreign labor for jobs that ultimately undercut Americans.
Vance and other senior administration officials criticized institutions for using J-1 visas for foreign students and IT outsourcing companies in the comprehensive statement.
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The statement was made just hours before Trump presented Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation as part of an event where he gave his tech billionaire pals some of the most prestigious scientific and technology honors in the country.
Vance claims that “foreign indentured servants” are taking the place of US workers.
According to Vance, the program that Microsoft is suspended from requires businesses to post job openings in the United States before submitting an application to the Department of Labor to demonstrate that they must grant a foreign worker a green card due to a shortage of American workers.
“A small-town newspaper will carry an advertisement. “We have advertised for a position with our company, and nobody is responding,” they will announce.
Vance stated, “And they will use that lack of response to go and replace American workers with what are essentially foreign indentured servants.”
“Unfortunately, no American company has utilized this system more than Microsoft.”
According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services records, Amazon ranks first and Microsoft fifth among American companies utilizing H-1B visas.
At a White House briefing, Vice President JD Vance criticized Microsoft for securing 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards during a year it simultaneously laid off 6,000 domestic employees.
Vance mathematically argued that the company substituted every laid-off worker with 1.5 “foreign indentured servants,” concluding with a firm warning that while Microsoft is a vital U.S. company, it must prioritize employing American citizens.
Vice President JD Vance argued that H-1B visa holders function as foreign indentured labor, noting that they face deportation if terminated and generally receive lower pay than their American peers.
In response, Microsoft clarified that 80% of its 6,000 H-1B applications from the previous fiscal year were simply extensions or status changes for current personnel, rather than new hires.
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The Redmond-based tech giant added that the remaining applications were for foreign nationals already living legally in the U.S., accounting for just 1% of its domestic workforce, emphasizing that these individuals were not new arrivals to the country.
Microsoft maintained that it only submits H-1B petitions for candidates who satisfy the visa’s strict federal criteria.
Meanwhile, Doug Rand, a former USCIS senior adviser under the Biden administration, labeled Vice President Vance’s policy “incoherent.”
Rand pointed out that if the Trump administration genuinely wanted to protect foreign workers from being “indentured servants,” it would not stop companies from sponsoring their permanent residency.
He noted that obtaining a green card eliminates a worker’s dependence on a specific employer, granting them the freedom to change jobs and negotiate better pay without the threat of deportation.
The H-1B visa program, designed to bring highly skilled foreign professionals to the U.S. to fill specialized vacancies, faces continued scrutiny from Trump administration supporters who claim it displaces American workers and invites widespread exploitation.
Historically utilized heavily by the technology sector, the program allocates roughly 75% of its approvals to Indian nationals. I
In an ongoing effort to curb the program, the Trump administration introduced a new regulatory proposal to enforce a $103,265 visa petition fee, aiming to offset federal immigration costs—a move that follows a federal judge’s rejection of an earlier $100,000 executive fee requirement.
Commenting on the administration’s recent enforcement actions against Microsoft, Howard University professor Ron Hira characterized the intervention as highly meaningful, tying it directly to a recent White House executive mandate instructing agencies to aggressively prevent H-1B system abuse.
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According to analyst Ron Hira, the H-1B program includes legal protections requiring companies to prove that hiring foreign professionals will not negatively impact comparable American workers—rules he claims have never been effectively enforced.
In addition to Microsoft, Vice President JD Vance announced that the federal government is placing identical green card program suspensions on Adobe, as well as major technology consulting corporations including Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini.
None of the affected firms provided an immediate response to requests for comment.
The White House expanded its immigration crackdown beyond corporations to target international students and higher education institutions.
The Department of Homeland Security proposed a $70,000 fee for schools to sponsor foreign students in the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program, which permits graduates to work in their fields of study.
At the same time, Vice President JD Vance accused universities of abusing J-1 exchange visas and launched a fraud investigation into nine major institutions: Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown, the University of Pittsburgh, UC Davis, Caltech, Arizona State, and MIT.
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While several schools acknowledged receiving government subpoenas, an MIT spokesperson emphasized that the federal government had already explicitly vetted and authorized every J-1 visa holder.
