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October 10, 2026
Trump’s Microsoft Crackdown Collides With His Big Tech Celebration
The White House casts its action as a defense of American workers, while Microsoft and its critics argue that blocking a route to permanent residency punishes employees already embedded in the U.S. workforce. India, whose professionals make up much of the H-1B pipeline, says the administration’s language turns an economic dispute into an insult.
On Thursday, the Trump administration suspended Microsoft, Adobe and six IT services firms from the Labor Department’s PERM program, a key step for employers sponsoring workers for employment-based green cards. Vice President JD Vance framed the move as a worker-protection crackdown, accusing Microsoft of laying off 6,000 Americans while obtaining roughly 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards. “You cannot lay off American workers and then replace them with foreign indentured servants,” he said.1
The charge joins two immigration systems that do not operate the same way. PERM concerns permanent residency; H-1B visas are temporary work permits. USCIS data showed Microsoft received 6,258 H-1B approvals in fiscal 2025, but about two-thirds went to people already at the company. Amazon, which was not suspended, received 19,178 approvals and brought in far more workers new to the firm.2
Microsoft said its filings were not a replacement scheme. Eighty percent of its H-1B applications in the previous fiscal year were for existing employees extending or changing status, it said, while new hires accounted for only 1% of its U.S. workforce. The company also said its pay was among the highest in H-1B filings.3 Former USCIS adviser Doug Rand called the policy backwards: preventing employers from sponsoring green cards keeps H-1B workers more dependent on their companies rather than less.1
The dispute quickly became international. On Friday, India called Vance’s wording “deeply offensive,” saying Indian professionals are skilled contributors to America’s economy and innovation system. Its government stressed that existing H-1B holders were not affected; India’s IT industry said its companies were reducing H-1B reliance while expanding U.S. hiring.4
By Thursday evening, the political split-screen was complete. President Donald Trump awarded Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella a National Medal of Technology and Innovation while also honoring several immigrant-born technology leaders. Musk’s repost of Trump’s tribute underscored the administration’s simultaneous celebration of tech’s global talent and assault on the immigration channels that help supply it.
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