Vance announces Microsoft, Adobe and IT firms suspended from green card program

Vice President JD Vance announced Thursday that the Trump administration is suspending Microsoft, Adobe and a group of major IT firms from the Program Electronic Review Management (PERM) labor certification program, which allows companies to sponsor foreign workers, including those on H-1B visas, for green cards. Outlets across the spectrum, including the Associated Press, Reuters, NBC News and the New York Post, reported the suspension at a Thursday news conference.

Beyond Microsoft and Adobe, multiple outlets including The Hindu, TechCrunch and CNA named Capgemini, Cognizant, HCL, Infosys, Tata and Wipro among the companies suspended from the program. CNBC reported that Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling cited "multiple active federal investigations" into the two companies' involvement in the program.

Vance singled out Microsoft specifically, criticizing the company for laying off 6,000 American workers last year, according to Axios, Fox Business and the Washington Examiner. Fox Business reported Vance said the company had received 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards, calling the arrangement a "scandalous system." He also said, "For every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with 1½ foreign indentured servants," a line also cited by Independent Journal Review and the New York Post.

Axios quoted Vance saying at the news conference, "We want people to invest in the United States of America, particularly the American technology sector... We want you to continue to grow and to employ a lot of people, but we want you to employ American workers." He added, according to the same report, "you're great American company, but you've got to hire great American workers. You cannot lay off American workers and then replace them with foreign indentured servants."

According to Semafor, the event at which Vance spoke also included the announcement of a visa fraud investigation into several universities. The Daily Wire similarly reported that the Department of Labor announced investigations into nine universities over their use of J-1 visas as part of what it described as the White House Task Force to Eliminate visa abuse, and said eight companies in total were suspended from the green-card program.

How the coverage differed

Left-leaning outlets, including the New York Times, CNN and Bloomberg, largely led with the fact of the suspension itself and its scope, framing it as part of a broader Trump administration fraud and crackdown effort, with The Hindu and others highlighting the list of Indian IT outsourcing firms affected. Right-leaning outlets, such as Fox Business, the New York Post and the Washington Examiner, emphasized Vance's direct accusations against Microsoft, quoting his "indentured servants" remark and layoff figures more prominently and at greater length.

Center outlets, including Axios and CNBC, provided the most detailed quotations from Vance and officials, with Axios including extended remarks about the administration's goals for the tech industry and CNBC adding Sonderling's comment about active federal investigations. Semafor and The Daily Wire were among the few outlets connecting the green-card suspensions to the broader university visa fraud investigations, a detail largely absent from other left- and right-leaning coverage.

Figures cited for Microsoft's layoffs and H-1B/green-card use were reported consistently by outlets that included them, though not all outlets provided these numbers; many left-leaning headlines focused narrowly on the suspension announcement without detailing Vance's specific claims against Microsoft, while several right-leaning outlets led directly with the fraud accusations in their headlines.

What is still unclear

The sources do not specify the exact number of companies suspended, with The Daily Wire citing eight while other outlets, including TechCrunch and The Hindu, list seven named firms. It also remains unclear what specific evidence supports the fraud accusations against Microsoft and Adobe beyond the active federal investigations mentioned by Sonderling, or what formal process, if any, the companies can pursue in response.