Trump Admin Freezes Green Cards at Major Tech Firms, Probes Student Exchange Visas
Time · LC · trust 64/100
The Trump Administration has suspended several major tech companies, including Microsoft and Adobe, as well as IT outsourcing firms from a green card program as it expands its crackdown on visa fraud .
Vice President J.D. Vance said Thursday that the companies had “abused” H-1B visa and green card processes in order to “replace American workers with what is effectively foreign indentured servants.” At the same White House press conference , officials announced probes into nine universities, including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, that the Administration accused of misusing a program meant for temporary educational and cultural exchanges.
The twin moves mark an escalation in the Trump Administration’s scrutiny of skilled worker immigration programs. The Trump Administration has pursued a broad crackdown on immigration fraud, citing the need to protect American workers and accusing major technology companies and universities of using foreign workers to undercut U.S. wages.
Here’s what to know about the announcements.
Microsoft and software maker Adobe are among eight companies that the Trump Administration will suspend from applying to sponsor employment-based green cards. The other companies are major information technology outsourcing firms: Cognizant; Infosys; Tata Consultancy Services; Wipro; HCL Technologies; and Capgemini.
“We will not accept any new or process any pending permanent labor certification applications involving these companies,” Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said.
Sonderling cited ongoing federal investigations, suggesting that the firms were among the biggest beneficiaries of the H-1B program. The companies had sought to hire almost 3 million foreign workers, received more than 230,000 H-1B visa approvals, and obtained over 100,000 permanent labor certifications since 2009, he said.
In fiscal year 2026, Amazon was the biggest employer of approved H-1B beneficiaries, followed by Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Apple, and Microsoft, according to immigration data.
According to Labor Department data through June 2026 , Microsoft was the largest filer of applications via the PERM program, which is the first step in the U.S. permanent labor certification process. The application requires employers to demonstrate that a foreign hire will not hurt U.S. workers’ wages or jobs.
“There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has abused the system more than Microsoft,” Vance said.
Vance said Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers last year while obtaining 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards. The company announced in July that it would cut 4,800 jobs globally.
“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. “Our message to Microsoft is: You’re a great American company, but you’ve got to hire great American workers.”
Microsoft said in a statement that 80% of its H-1B applications in the last fiscal year were to extend or change the status of current employees, not hire new workers.
“The remaining filings for new employees were for individuals already legally in the United States who decided to come work for us, and they equal only 1% of our U.S. workforce. They are not new arrivals to our country,” Microsoft said.
Microsoft said it pays its H-1B employees the same as other workers in comparable roles. It added that it only files H-1B petitions for “those who meet the rigorous standards of this visa category.”
Vance said the suspensions would last “as long as it needs to.” The Administration is seeking to compel the companies to change their behavior. Vance accused companies of deliberately posting ineffective job ads in order to justify hiring foreign workers.
“Maybe they’ll put an advertisement in a small-town newspaper. They’ll go out there and say that we have advertised for a position with our company, and nobody is responding to it. And they will use that lack of response to then go and replace American workers with what is effectively foreign indentured servants,” Vance said.
Tata Consultancy Services told Reuters that it did not expect the suspension to impact its workforce strategy or client engagements, noting that it had made single-digit PERM applications in the past two years.
TIME has reached out to the other companies for comment.
Vance also accused nine universities of abusing the J-1 visa program that allows foreign nationals to temporarily study, teach, or conduct research in the U.S. through programs overseen by the State Department. The universities have already been served subpoenas, the officials said, and would face investigations for allegedly misusing the visa program to undercut American wages.
The nine universities were: 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.
“Something weird is going on at these universities,” Vance said. “They’re using these visas way too much. They’re using them to undercut the wages of American grad students and American researchers, and it simply has to stop.”
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,” he said. “Break the law and screw the American people, and I will personally cuff you in the university square. I don’t care how large your endowment is, how powerful your alumni are or how many politicians you have on speed dial.”
Harvard , Brown , Pitt , and MIT acknowledged receipt of the subpoenas. Stanford and UC Davis said they would cooperate with the investigations. Arizona State said it complies with U.S. law. Yale said it would review the investigation…
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