The administration of US President Donald Trump has suspended Microsoft and software firm Adobe from a key visa programme for highly skilled foreign workers, accusing the companies of abusing the system at the expense of American employees.
US Vice President JD Vance announced the move on Thursday as part of an administration-wide crackdown on alleged visa fraud and misuse of immigration programmes.
“Our message to Microsoft is: you’re a great American company, but you’ve got to hire great American workers,” Vance told reporters at the White House.
Vance, who is leading an anti-fraud task force established by Trump earlier this year, accused Microsoft of exploiting the H-1B visa programme, which allows US companies to employ highly skilled foreign workers. He alleged that the technology giant had laid off about 6,000 American workers while hiring 6,300 H-1B visa holders.
The announcement came just hours before Trump was scheduled to present Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella with one of the United States’ highest honours for technological achievement at a ceremony in Washington.
Adobe was also suspended from the visa programme, according to Vance, as the administration intensifies scrutiny of major technology companies and their reliance on foreign workers.
The vice president also announced investigations into nine elite US universities over alleged misuse of a separate visa programme for academic and study exchanges.
The institutions under investigation include Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
“Something weird is going on at these universities, they’re using these visas way too much,” Vance said, alleging that the institutions were using the programmes to employ cheaper foreign researchers.
The latest moves come amid the Trump administration’s broader confrontation with several leading US universities, which it has accused of promoting left-wing political views and failing to adequately address antisemitism.
Harvard has been a particular target, with the administration moving to freeze billions of dollars in federal funding linked to the university.
The visa crackdown also comes as Republicans seek to make immigration and employment a major political issue ahead of the November midterm elections, with the Iran war and rising living costs also expected to influence voters.
