Trump administration suspends Microsoft from green card program, accusing it of using “foreign indentured servants”

AP Photo/Tom Brenner

The Trump administration has suspended Microsoft and seven other companies from the Permanent Labor Certification Program, known as PERM — the federal pathway employers use to sponsor foreign workers for employment-based green cards — accusing the tech giant of misusing the system to replace American workers with cheaper foreign labor.

Vice President JD Vance and Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling announced the suspensions, which also hit Adobe and six outsourcing firms: Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini. The affected companies can no longer submit new PERM applications, and their pending filings will stop being processed.

Vance was blunt about the administration’s framing, saying companies “will use that lack of response to then go and replace American workers with what is effectively foreign indentured servants.” He singled out Microsoft specifically: “There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has used this system more than Microsoft.” The administration argues the PERM program is meant strictly for workers with “hyper-specialized” skills that genuinely can’t be found among the domestic workforce, not as a general hiring pipeline.

Vance cited specific figures to back the allegation, saying Microsoft laid off roughly 6,000 American workers last year while the company simultaneously benefited from 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards processed through the program.

Microsoft pushed back hard against the characterization. In a statement, the company said that of the roughly 6,000 H-1B visa applications it submitted in the last fiscal year, 80% were to extend or change the status of existing Microsoft employees already working for the company — “These were not to hire new people,” the statement said. Microsoft added that it pays H-1B employees the same as other workers in comparable roles and follows strict government rules governing the program.

The suspension marks one of the most aggressive moves yet by the administration against the tech industry’s use of skilled-worker visa programs, and sets up a direct confrontation with one of the largest employers of H-1B and green-card-sponsored workers in the country — a fight likely to play out in court as much as in public statements.