Trump Administration Freezes Green Cards for Microsoft and Major IT Firms, Opens Probes Into Harvard, Yale and Stanford

WASHINGTON — The United States on Thursday suspended Microsoft, software maker Adobe and a group of the world's largest IT outsourcing firms from a key green-card program, while opening investigations into nine of the country's top universities. The administration says the twin actions target fraud and protect American jobs. Critics warn they could choke off one of the most common paths to permanent residency for foreign tech talent.

"No Company Has Abused the System More"

"There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has abused the system more than Microsoft," Vice President JD Vance said. He argued the company laid off about 6,000 American workers last year while benefiting from roughly 6,300 H-1B temporary worker visas and nearly 3,000 green cards.

Microsoft is the largest filer of PERM applications, the permanent labor certification process most employment-based green cards require. Under PERM, employers must show that hiring a foreign worker will not hurt the wages or jobs of US workers. In a statement, Microsoft said about 80% of its H-1B filings last fiscal year were extensions or status changes for current employees, not new hires, and that it pays H-1B staff the same as colleagues doing comparable work.

Illustration: The Labor Department says it will halt new and pending applications from the named firms.

The Crackdown Widens

Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said the suspension also covers 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," he said. According to Sonderling, these firms have sought almost three million foreign workers since 2009, receiving more than 230,000 H-1B approvals and over 100,000 permanent labor certifications.

Vance said the suspensions would last "as long as it needs to," adding that the administration wants companies to change how they recruit. He accused some employers of posting ineffective job ads, then citing a lack of applicants to justify hiring lower-paid foreign workers.

India's IT industry body, Nasscom, pushed back, saying Indian tech companies operating in the US have sharply reduced their reliance on H-1B visas and that relatively few of their workers seek green cards through PERM.

Illustration: Foreign tech workers face new uncertainty over their path to permanent residency.

Part of a Broader Push

The move builds on "Project Firewall," a Labor Department enforcement drive launched last September alongside a White House proclamation imposing a one-time $100,000 fee on new H-1B petitions for workers hired from abroad. The program has opened roughly 200 cases and levied millions of dollars in penalties.

The timing was striking: hours after Vance's remarks, President Trump honored tech leaders for their contributions to America, among them Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, a former H-1B holder, and Elon Musk, who also once held the visa.

Universities Under Scrutiny

Vance also announced investigations into nine universities, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, over what the administration called misuse of exchange-visitor visas to undercut American wages. Labor Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito said subpoenas had already been served, and that investigators would examine foreign influence, improper financial relationships and visa abuse in federally funded research.

Illustration: Nine elite research universities have been served subpoenas.

"It could have an enormous economic impact on the whole US economy," said Sarah Spreitzer of the American Council on Education, noting that international students have historically spent about $40 billion a year in the United States.

What Comes Next

With the midterm elections less than four weeks away, the actions put immigration and American jobs back at the center of the campaign. For thousands of foreign professionals already working in the US, and the companies that employ them, the immediate question is how long the freeze will last, and whether court challenges will follow.

Reporting draws on statements from the White House, the Labor Department, company responses and Reuters coverage.