▲ US Vice President JD Vance
The Donald Trump administration decided on October 8 (local time) to bar several major U.S. technology companies, including Microsoft (MS), from participating in green card application programs for foreign workers.
The rationale is that these companies have been exploiting H-1B, a non-immigrant visa for high-skilled foreign workers, to attract foreign labor cheaper than Americans and subsequently apply for green cards, which threatens high-paying jobs for U.S. citizens.
During a press conference at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House that day, Vice President JD Vance announced that these measures will be implemented targeting nine technology companies: Microsoft, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies, and Capgemini, among others.
Generally, H-1B visa holders working at U.S. companies apply for green cards before their visas expire, during which companies submit a PERM (Permanent Labor Certification) application to the Department of Labor.
PERM is a mandatory step in employment-based green card applications where employers must have the Department of Labor certify that there are no available U.S. workers for a specific position in the company.
The Trump administration's latest measure means it will no longer accept PERM applications from these nine companies.
Vice President Vance stated, "They place job ads in small-town newspapers and claim, 'We posted a job opening, but no one applied.'"
He further criticized, "They then use this as an excuse to effectively replace American workers with foreign contract laborers," adding, "Unfortunately, no company in America has abused this system as much as Microsoft."
Vice President Vance noted that last year, Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers while securing 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards.
He calculated, "When you run the numbers, Microsoft has replaced every 1 American worker it laid off with 1.5 foreign contract laborers," and told Microsoft, "You are a great American company, but you need to employ great American workers."
Vice President Vance also announced that nine prominent U.S. universities will face investigations by the Department of Labor regarding J-1 non-immigrant visas, which are exchange visitor visas intended for human exchanges in education, arts, and science.
The universities he targeted include Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, Brown University, the University of Pittsburgh, UC Davis, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Arizona State University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The argument is that these universities have heavily replaced graduate students and researchers with foreigners, who receive relatively lower wages compared to Americans.
Vice President Vance pointed out, "These universities employ J-1 visa holders at a rate of about 61% in federally funded research projects."
"The national average is 38%," he noted, adding, "They are using J-1 visas excessively and abusing them to drive down wages for American graduate students and researchers."
(Photo: Getty Images)
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