Trump administration suspends Microsoft, Adobe and six IT firms from green card PERM program, alleging visa abuse

The Trump administration is shutting Microsoft, Adobe and six major IT outsourcing firms out of the Permanent Labor Certification program, known as PERM. The program is the first step most employers must complete before sponsoring a foreign worker for an employment-based green card.

Vice President JD Vance, who leads the White House fraud task force, announced the move Thursday, Oct. 8, at a press conference in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Attorney General Todd Blanche and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller were also there.

Who is suspended

Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling named the targets: Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini. "We will not accept any new or process any pending permanent labor certification applications involving these companies," he said.

Sonderling said Microsoft and Adobe were suspended because of "multiple active federal investigations." No charges against either company have been announced.

He also gave a historical figure for the group. "Since 2009, just these companies alone have requested almost 3 million foreign workers," Sonderling said. He said they received more than 230,000 H-1B approvals and more than 100,000 permanent labor certifications.

The Microsoft numbers

Vance spent most of his time on Microsoft. "There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has abused the system more than Microsoft," he said.

He said Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers last year while benefiting from 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards. "If you do the math, for every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants," Vance said.

Government data is in the same range. USCIS figures show 6,258 H-1B approvals for Microsoft in the last fiscal year, and Labor Department data show 3,157 PERM filings.

The 1.5 ratio adds H-1B approvals and green card filings together. PERM is typically the step employers take for workers already on H-1B visas, and the administration has not said how many of those approvals were new hires, extensions or the same people moving through the pipeline. The ratio also assumes the foreign hires filled the roles of the laid-off workers. Vance did not say how that link was established.

What counts as fraud

Asked what made the conduct fraudulent, Vance pointed to the PERM certification itself. Employers must attest that no qualified, available U.S. worker can fill the role. The administration alleges that attestation is false when a company lays off Americans and sponsors lower-paid foreign workers.

"Our message to Microsoft is, you're a great American company, but you've got to hire great American workers," Vance said. He added that the administration wants American companies to "thrive" and invest, and wants them to employ Americans.

Sonderling was blunter about the stakes. "That's hundreds of thousands of jobs that were taken from American workers," he said, calling the suspensions "the first critical step to stop the fraud and the abuse."

The policy backdrop is long-running. Critics of the H-1B system have argued for years that it is overused and lets employers swap in cheaper foreign labor. Tech companies are among the largest users, and nearly three-quarters of approved H-1B visas go to workers from India, according to the Associated Press.

Nine universities under investigation

Vance also announced a probe into alleged J-1 visa abuse at nine universities: Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown, the University of Pittsburgh, UC Davis, Caltech, Arizona State and MIT. The J-1 program brings in international students and exchange participants.

Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito called it a "historic investigation" and said subpoenas have been served. The administration alleges the programs are being used to undercut American wages.

How long it lasts

Vance said the PERM suspensions will stay in place "as long as it needs to," and said the administration has tools to extend them indefinitely. He said the goal is for companies to change how they hire.

Microsoft and Adobe did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The NY Post reported that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was expected to join President Trump at the White House Thursday afternoon, when Trump is due to present him with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

The suspension covers both new filings and pending ones. It is unclear what happens to Microsoft and Adobe employees whose green card cases are already in the pipeline. Whether the Labor Department's active investigations turn into formal findings or charges is also unanswered.