Trump suspends Microsoft from green card programme amid H-1B crackdown

The Trump administration on Thursday suspended Microsoft and several other firms from a programme that allows foreign workers to apply for green cards, while also stepping up pressure on universities that bring international students to the United States on exchange visas. Vice President JD Vance announced the move as the latest action by the administration against employers and institutions that welcome foreign workers and students.

Programmes such as the H-1B visa for skilled workers and the J-1 visa for exchange visitors have long divided opinion among Donald Trump's supporters. Critics say they undercut American workers and students, while supporters say they help the US attract talent from around the world and fill hiring gaps. The announcement came hours before Trump awarded Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella the Medal of Technology and Innovation, and a day after the administration proposed a new fee for international students seeking to work in the US.

Vance said the programme from which Microsoft is being suspended requires companies to advertise jobs in the US before applying to the Department of Labor to show that a foreign worker should be given a green card because no American worker is available. "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. "There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has used this system more than Microsoft."

According to US Citizenship and Immigration Services data, Microsoft is the fifth-largest US employer in terms of H-1B visa use, with Amazon ranked first. Vance said Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers last year while also obtaining 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 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," he said at a White House news conference. "Our message to Microsoft is: You're a great American company, but you've got to hire great American workers." Vance said H-1B workers are effectively foreign indentured servants because they have to leave the country if they lose their jobs and are paid less than Americans in similar roles.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, said that of the about 6,000 H-1B visa applications it filed in the last financial year, 80 per cent were "to extend or change the status of existing Microsoft employees". "These were not to hire new people," the company said in a statement. "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 per cent of our US workforce. They are not new arrivals to our country." The company added that it files H-1B petitions only for "those who meet the rigorous standards of this visa category".

Doug Rand, a former senior adviser at USCIS during the Biden administration, called Vance's announcement "incoherent". "If the Trump administration were truly concerned that H-1B workers are 'indentured servants,' then the last thing they would do is block companies from helping their own H-1B workers get green cards," he said. "Once you have a green card, you're no longer dependent on your employer for your immigration status - you're a permanent resident who can change jobs and negotiate higher wages without fear."

The H-1B programme has long been criticised by some Trump supporters, who say it hurts American workers and is open to abuse. The visas are meant for high-skilled jobs that are hard to fill with American workers. Technology companies are the biggest users, and nearly three-quarters of approvals go to workers from India. Trump last year tried to raise the fee for H-1B work visas to USD 100,000, saying it would protect American workers from losing jobs to lower-paid foreigners, but a federal judge struck that down in June. In August, the administration proposed a fee of USD 103,265, describing it as a "dedicated revenue mechanism to help recover a portion of the federal government's costs of administering the lawful immigration system". The rule is not yet final and is expected to face a legal challenge.

Ron Hira, a Howard University political science professor and a longtime critic of the H-1B programme, called the action against Microsoft "very significant". He noted that the White House last month issued an executive order directing government agencies to "implement appropriate measures to protect American workers from abuse of the H-1B program and ensure that the programme serves the national interest". "There are supposed to be protections for US workers that say: If you hire an H-1B, you are promising that you are not adversely affecting similarly employed US workers," Hira said. "That's never been enforced." Besides Microsoft, Vance said the government was also suspending Adobe and technology consulting firms Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini. The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The move came a day after the administration opened another front against international students and their ability to work in the US. On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security proposed a USD 70,000 fee for international students seeking to work in the country. Under the proposed rule, schools would have to pay the fee for every student taking part in the Optional Practical Training programme, which allows students to work in jobs linked to their field of study during or after their course.

Vance also accused universities of misusing the J-1 visa programme, which allows international visitors to come to the US temporarily for work and study exchanges. He named nine universities that he said deserved further investigation for J-1 visa fraud because they used the programme in greater proportions than comparable institutions. The universities named 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.

Stanford said it would cooperate with the investigation. MIT and Brown said they had received and were reviewing government subpoenas related to programmes for foreign workers. "Of note, each J-1 visa holder at MIT has been vetted and authorized to come here by the US government, and we take seriously our obligations to follow US law," MIT spokesperson Kimberly Allen said in a written statement.

In sum, the administration's latest action combined a suspension of companies from a green card-linked programme, fresh criticism of H-1B hiring practices and new scrutiny of universities using J-1 visas, widening its broader push against the use of foreign worker and student visa programmes in the US.

With PTI Inputs

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