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October 9, 2026
Trump Cracks Down on Microsoft’s Green-Card Pipeline, Then Honors Its CEO
The administration suspended Microsoft and other major IT firms from a key employment-based green-card program while celebrating Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella hours later. Officials say they are protecting U.S. workers; Microsoft and immigration lawyers warn of a squeeze on skilled talent.
On Thursday, the Trump administration suspended Microsoft, Adobe and six major IT-services firms from the Permanent Employment Program, or PERM — a crucial first step for employers seeking employment-based green cards for workers, often H-1B holders.1
Vice President JD Vance framed the move as a challenge to Microsoft’s hiring practices, not an attack on the company itself. “We want your company to thrive,” he said, “but we want it to thrive by employing and empowering your fellow Americans.”1 Vance alleged that Microsoft had laid off 6,000 U.S. workers while replacing them with 6,300 H-1B employees, though he offered no timeline for the claim. He said the suspension could continue indefinitely.1
Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling said the department would neither accept new PERM applications involving the named companies nor process pending ones, accusing them of fraud and of favoring foreign workers over Americans.2 The list also includes Capgemini, Cognizant, HCL, Infosys, Tata and Wipro.2
Microsoft pushed back, saying 80% of the roughly 6,000 H-1B filings it made in the last fiscal year were extensions or status changes for existing staff, rather than new hires. The remaining filings, it said, involved people already legally in the United States and amounted to just 1% of its U.S. workforce.2 The company said it pays H-1B employees the same as colleagues doing comparable work.
The clash took on a strikingly contradictory cast later Thursday, when President Donald Trump awarded Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, calling the summit’s honorees “national treasures.”1
For immigration lawyers, the immediate concern is the workers caught in between. PERM processing can already take years, and Patricia Gannon called it “a fundamental way of getting a green card in the U.S. for workers.” Hiba Anver warned the move could leave the country with “a shrinking talent pool.”1
[1] Immigration split-screen: Microsoft gets a crackdown and a medal — Administration allegations, Microsoft’s response and immigration-lawyer concerns.
[2] US bars Microsoft, Adobe, and major IT firms from green card program for skilled foreign workers — Labor Department action and Microsoft’s account of its H-1B filings.