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The Trump administration has suspended Microsoft, Adobe and six major IT outsourcing firms from the federal program employers use to sponsor foreign workers for green cards, and subpoenaed nine of America's most prestigious universities over alleged misuse of J-1 exchange-visitor visas, in a crackdown announced at the White House on October 8 that remains in force with no end date. Vice President JD Vance announced the suspensions alongside Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, Attorney General Todd Blanche and Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito, accusing Microsoft of abusing the system more than any other American company. The pressure has not let up since: on November 13, D'Esposito publicly mocked Microsoft as its Outlook service recovered from a worldwide outage, writing on X, "Microsoft can process 6,000 H-1B applications, but processing your inbox is apparently a tougher assignment."
The action reaches into the pipeline tens of thousands of foreign workers use to stay in the United States permanently. PERM, the permanent labor certification, is the step most employers must clear before sponsoring a worker for an employment-based green card, proving no qualified American worker is available for the job. Cutting eight large employers out of it freezes green-card sponsorships for their foreign staff, while the university subpoenas put federally funded research jobs under scrutiny — and the administration says the point is to stop American workers being laid off and replaced with cheaper foreign labor.
"Subpoenas have been served. Investigations are underway. And nobody gets a free pass because their name is carved into an expensive building," D'Esposito said in the Labor Department's October 9 press release announcing the university investigation. "Improperly used J-1 visa classifications to avoid employment obligations, exploit taxpayer-funded programs, and undermine American workers will not be tolerated." He added: "I don't care how prestigious a university thinks it is. Break the law and screw Americans, and I will personally cuff you in the university square."
The eight companies cut off from PERM are Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini. Reuters reported the department will accept no new permanent labor certification applications from them and will not process pending ones. Vance said Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers while benefiting from about 6,300 H-1B approvals and nearly 3,000 green cards in the relevant period, and that the suspension would last "as long as it needs to." Microsoft received 1,600 of the 1,898 PERM certifications the eight companies obtained in the nine months to June 2026 — 84 percent of the total.
Microsoft disputes the allegation, saying it files H-1B petitions only for people who meet the visa's standards and pays them the same as comparable colleagues, and that about 80 percent of its roughly 6,000 H-1B applications in the last fiscal year were extensions or status changes for existing employees rather than new hires. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data show Microsoft received 6,258 H-1B approvals in fiscal year 2025. The suspension does not cancel anyone's current H-1B status or job, and previously certified PERMs and approved petitions were not automatically revoked — but workers nearing the six-year H-1B limit face uncertainty, because some extensions depend on a labor-certification filing.
The nine universities subpoenaed are Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of California, Davis, the California Institute of Technology, Arizona State University and MIT. The inspector general's office says it is examining alleged misuse and misclassification of J-1 visas at institutions that collectively receive billions of dollars in federally supported research funding, and whether foreign influence, improper financial relationships or visa abuse are compromising federally funded research. Vance said J-1 holders made up about 61 percent of researchers on federally funded grants at the nine schools, against a national average of 38 percent, and cited cases of foreign researchers earning $20,000 less than American workers in comparable jobs. According to federal data cited by Time, Harvard sponsored 2,218 new J-1 exchange visitors in 2024, Stanford 1,436, Yale 1,169 and MIT 1,087.
The universities say they follow the law. Harvard confirmed it received a subpoena and is reviewing it; Stanford said it complies with all applicable visa laws and will cooperate; MIT said each of its J-1 holders was vetted and authorized by the U.S. government itself. No university has been charged, no findings of fraud have been announced, and no individual visa holder has been publicly accused of wrongdoing — a subpoena demands documents; it is not a verdict.
The October actions grew out of a nationwide investigation the Labor Department's inspector general opened on July 8 into alleged fraud and human trafficking in the H-1B and PERM systems, in which dozens of subpoenas have been issued. On September 8, D'Esposito announced the first suspensions, cutting off Cognizant and Cloudera, writing on X: "Fighting fraud is a TEAM SPORT... Handcuffs await." Alongside the university probe he unveiled a Visa Fraud Strike Team and a Labor Inspector General Most Wanted List featuring 16 fugitives accused of stealing more than $250 million from American workers and taxpayers. The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division had separately filed a civil action against one of the targeted companies earlier in 2026, alleging recruitment practices designed to avoid hiring qualified U.S. workers.
The crackdown is still widening. On November 11, IBM Consulting said it would end H-1B visa and green-card sponsorship for most roles in its consulting division, citing the availability of skilled workers in the United States; D'Esposito reacted on X: "Funny how the corporate calculus changes when scrutiny shows up." Affected IBM employees were offered the option of relocating outside the United States or leaving the company by the end of the year, Bloomberg reported.
For now, the eight companies cannot sponsor a single new green card, the nine universities must hand over their records, and the investigations continue with no findings yet announced. Vance said the suspension will last "as long as it needs to" and the administration has tools to extend it indefinitely — so the next move belongs to the companies and universities, and to the investigators deciding whether more names join the list.