BREAKING: Trump admin suspends Microsoft, Adobe from H-1B, permanent residency programs

"Since 2009, just these companies alone have requested almost 3 million foreign workers. They’ve received over 230,000 H-1B visa approvals and over 100,000 permanent labor certifications. That’s hundreds of thousands of jobs that were taken from American workers," said Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, announcing that there have been "multiple active federal investigations."

As Microsoft engaged in H-1B and permanent labor certifications, they also engaged in layoffs here at home. Vice President JD Vance, who has taken the initiative on cracking down on fraud, noted that Microsoft laid off 6,000 people in 2025 and said that these workers had been replaced with foreign workers using government programs.

"The H1-B visa program is meant to allow companies to bring in really the best of the best from outside the United States of America for positions that are completely impossible to fill with American workers. Unfortunately, the program has become rife with fraud," Vance said.

"There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has abused this system more than Microsoft," said Vance. "And let me just give you a couple of statistics on this. So, in the last year, Microsoft—and I want to be clear about the data here—so let me check this. But Microsoft laid off last year 6,000, 6,000 American workers at the same time. The company benefited from 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards.

"In other words, if you do the math, for every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants. Now that is a scandalous system that we've allowed in this country for far too long, but thanks to the work of this task force and thanks to the empowerment of the President of the United States, we are going to stop it.

"Because thanks to an ongoing investigation, we have decided to suspend the perm program for Microsoft, which means ... they'll no longer be able to take those H-1Bs and apply for permanent resident status within the United States of America. Now, our message to Microsoft and to any other foreign or domestic corporation is quite simple.

"We obviously want you to thrive in the United States of America. We want people to invest in the United States of America, particularly the American technology sector. We are the biggest boosters of your industry. We want you to continue to grow and to employ a lot of people, but we want you to employ American workers. And so, 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."

"So we're going to continue to support Microsoft," Vance went on to say, "and have a great relationship with Microsoft, but we're also going to deny them the ability to apply for these permanent residencies until they show that they are going to get serious about putting American workers first."