The Trump administration is suspending Microsoft from a major immigration program that allows its foreign workers to transfer from an H1B1 visa to a green card, accusing the tech giant of fraud.
“If you do the math, for every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants,” Vice President Vance said Thursday at an event for his government fraud task force.
Critics of the H1B1 program — which permits workers with special skills legal employment in the US — say it is overused, allows cheaper foreign workers to replace American employees, and is rife with abuse.
Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling added that some of the largest IT firms in the world would also be suspended from the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) program, including Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini, as well as Adobe.
“We will not accept any new or process any pending permanent labor certification applications involving these companies,” the newly confirmed secretary said. “Since 2009, just these companies alone have requested almost 3 million foreign workers.”
Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will be with President Trump on Thursday afternoon when he is expected to be awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
