The Labor Department Bars Microsoft, Adobe and Six IT Outsourcers From the PERM Green Card Program — JD Vance Says Microsoft Replaced Each Laid-Off American With "One and a Half Foreign Indentured Servants," While Pramila Jayapal Says "You Don't Fix a Broken Immigration System by Taking a Hammer to Legal Immigration"
On Oct. 8, 2026, at a White House Fraud Task Force news conference, Vice President JD Vance and Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling announced that the Labor Department was suspending Microsoft, Adobe and six IT outsourcing firms — Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini — from the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) program. PERM is the first step employers use to sponsor foreign workers, typically H-1B holders, for employment-based green cards. The department said it would accept no new applications from the companies and stop processing pending ones, citing multiple active federal investigations. No end date was set. The H-1B program itself was not suspended, and approved green cards were not revoked. Vance accused Microsoft of laying off about 6,000 American workers last year while benefiting from 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards. Microsoft said most of its U.S. employees are Americans and that it pays H-1B workers the same as others doing comparable work. Washington Democrats Pramila Jayapal, the top Democrat on the House immigration subcommittee, and Suzan DelBene, whose district includes much of the region's tech industry, said the move punishes workers already in the country without addressing visa abuse. The Labor Department had suspended Cognizant and Cloudera from PERM in September.
“[At a White House Fraud Task Force news conference:] So if the H-1B visa is how the people get into the country, the PERM program is how they stay in the United States to begin with. … Now there has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has abused the system more than Microsoft. … Microsoft laid off last year 6,000 American workers. At the same time, the company benefited from 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards. In other words, if you do the math, for every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants. … Now that is a scandalous system that we've allowed in this country for far too long. … You cannot lay off American workers and then replace them with foreign indentured servants. … Microsoft is a great American company … but we're also going to deny them the ability to apply for these permanent residencies until they show that they are going to get serious about putting American workers first.”