JD Vance Makes Announcement Suspending Several Tech Firms, Including Microsoft and Adobe, from H1B Visa Program

October 8, 2026 | Sundance1/3(Very long, can’t post the entire article)

Vice President JD Vance and the federal Fraud Taskforce held a press conference today announcing their investigative findings of H1B visa abuse and manipulation of green card program by U.S. corporations who hire foreign workers over Americans.

During the press conference, JD Vance announced that Microsoft and Adobe have been suspended from the H1B visa process, as well as several other tech companies.The taskforce also announced immediate investigations into nine major U.S. universities for J1 student visa fraud. The entire visa program is being targeted by the fraud taskforce and DOJ in order to ensure that American students and American workers benefit from employment and college entrance opportunities.This is well worth watching in full:

Vice President JD Vance Holds Press Conference on Fighting Visa Fraud

44:19

https://www.youtu.be/7QAu9FOEOv8

So Keith has been one of our real all-stars on the anti-fraud task force, and of course the IGF DOL and. All of them will speak and then you guys can ask us a few questions, but here’s the basic problem, something that we’ve been working towards fixing in the Trump administration for a long time.

The H-1B visa program is meant to allow companies to bring in really the best of the best from outside the United States of America for positions that are completely impossible to fill with American workers. Unfortunately, the program has become rife with fraud. over the last several years, probably the last several decades, and here’s the basic game that American corporations and foreign corporations will play. They will say maybe they’ll put an advertisement in a small town newspaper. They’ll go out there and say that we have advertised for a position with our company and nobody is responding to it, and they will use that lack of response to then go and replace American workers with what is effectively. And indentured servants, and I’ll get into that in a second, but these are not people who are coming into the United States of America. These H-1B visas with the full rights of an American citizen or an American employee. They’re coming in and being mistreated by their employers and being used to undercut the wages of American workers.

Now there are two ways this system fundamentally works. The H-1B visa is how the people get into the United States in the first place, and then a perm program. is how those employees stay. So after a couple of cycles of H-1B reapplication, the companies will then apply for a perm, a PERM, which will allow the employee to stay, get a green card, and potentially stay in the United States indefinitely. So if the H-1B visa is how people come 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 this system more than Microsoft. And let me just give you a couple of statistics on this. So in the last year, Microsoft, and I want to be clear about the data here, so let me check this, but Microsoft laid off last year 6000, 6000 American workers. At the same time, the company benefited from 6300 H-1B visas and almost 3000 green cards.

In other words, if you do the math, for every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with 1.5 foreign indentured servants. Now that is a scandalous system that we’ve allowed in this country for far too long, but thanks to the work of Task force and thanks to the empowerment of the President of the United States, we’re going to stop it because thanks to an ongoing investigation we have decided to suspend the perm program for Microsoft, which means they will no longer be able to apply their they’ll no longer be able to take those H-1Bs and apply for permanent resident status within the United States of America.

Now, our message to Microsoft and to any other foreign or domestic corporation is quite simple. We obviously want you to thrive. In the United States of America, we want people to invest in the United States of America, particularly the American technology sector. We are the biggest boosters of your industry. We want you to continue to grow and to employ a lot of people, but we want you to employ American workers. And so our message to Microsoft is you’re a 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, and I want to talk a little bit about that.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/10/08/jd-vance-makes-announcement-suspending-several-tech-firms-including-microsoft-and-adobe-from-h1b-visa-program/#more-287733

>>25120011

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When I say indentured servants, here’s what I mean. When somebody comes in on an H-1B, they are completely, they’re completely subordinate to that company. If they lose that job, they have to leave the country. So if you think of the basic idea of an American constitutional republic where we bring people in who are fair and equal citizens of the United States. States of America, they are not controlled by their employer, but you bring people in and you basically tell them that if they get out of line, if they get too uppity at work, they’re not just going to lose their job, but they’re going to be deported back to their country of residence. Those people are not full citizens, and that’s why those people are earning wages that are far below the average for American citizens.

The second thing I want to say about that is this fraud is facilitated not just by the companies themselves but in some ways it’s facilitated by these foreign outsourcing firms, these firms that help corporations apply and find H-1B visa candidates.They’re commonly called the witches, the four major outsourcing firms, and these firms. Are as complicit or maybe more so complicit in the visa fraud than any American corporation.

And here’s the basic data. If you are working as an H-1B visa in the United States of America, you’re earning $20,000 less than an American citizen hired in the same position. If you were brought in by one of these foreign outsourcing firms, you’re making $48,000. Is less than an American citizen in a similar position. So I’m sure that everybody here understands the game that is being played. You bring in indentured servants from outside the country. You lay off American workers, and if you’re a corporation, you make a ton of money by undercutting the wages of American workers, replacing them with people who, frankly, shouldn’t be in the United States of America to begin with.

This is a terribly pernicious system. It’s gone on for too long, and we’d all encourage, by the way, Congress to do something about it, but there are things within our authority under the law, our regulatory authorities and administration to fix this problem, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.

I want to make one final announcement here because while we see a lot of H-1B visa fraud, we also see a lot of J-1 visa fraud.And this is where some of America’s most elite universities bring in foreigners again to undercut the wages of American residents.

Now, there are 9 universities in particular that we believe merit an investigation. Those universities are Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown, the University of Pittsburgh, UC Davis, Caltech, Arizona State, and MIT. And what we see is that when you employ an American worker as a graduate student, as a researcher, they’re making about $20,000 more than someone brought in under a J-1 visa.

And importantly, these universities are employing J-1 visas for federally funded grants at a rate of about 61%. The national average is 38%, so something weird is going on at these universities. They’re using these visas way too much. They’re using them to undercut the wages of American grad students and American researchers, and it simply has to stop.

Let me make one final point before I turn it over to Keith. This is a fundamental Insult to the American worker and to the American way of life. We cannot allow visa programs that were designed to ensure that American corporations had access to the best and the brightest to use them to undercut the wages of American workers…. Continued… very long….

Now it’s one thing if you want to bring in a person like Elon Musk. I think 99% of American citizens look at somebody like Elon Musk or Lisa Su, the CEO of AMD, and they say, Obviously if that person wants to come in and build something great in the United States of America, we support that.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/10/08/jd-vance-makes-announcement-suspending-several-tech-firms-including-microsoft-and-adobe-from-h1b-visa-program/#more-287733

>>25120015

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But if you’re bringing in an accountant who’s making $40,000 a year and youuse that foreign indentured servant making $40,000 a year to replace an American worker who is making $70,000 a year, you’re not bringing in a genius to build a great American corporation. You’re committing fraud against the American people and against this visa program. It has to stop. And thanks to the work of this task force and again the empowerment of the President of the United States, we are doing something to stop it.

I again would encourage Congress to reform this program. It is very clear that it’s not working the way that it should, but we have tools in the administration to make this program work better for the American people. A lot more we could do if Congress. Willing to play ball. And again we extend an invitation to both Democrats and Republicans. If you want the H-1B visa program to stop being used to defraud the American taxpayer and to undercut the wages of American workers, get to work and we will help you. But we’re going to do everything that we can in the interim to ensure the program works as it was designed to work. And with that, I want to turn it over to our great Labor Secretary Keith. Take it away.

DOL Secretary Keith Sonderling:Well, thank you, Vice President Vance for the task force and all the task force members for the amazing work we do together. Because of this task force, the Department of Labor has uncovered $22 billion in visa fraud. But today we are protecting something far more valuable than any dollar amount. We are protecting the American worker.

The Department of Labor. Taking historic action by shutting down the pipeline of systemic fraud, the fraud that has flooded our country with foreign labor at the expense of American workers. It begins with universities and companies that have turned into visa mills, promoting foreign workers that have lied about their qualifications to take jobs from our beloved American workers. But these foreign workers aren’t coming here just for the job.

Employers have enabled this pipeline through fraud, putting foreign labor ahead of American workers, and the fraud doesn’t end with getting the job. That job becomes a pathway for foreign workers and their families to stay in America permanently and eventually becoming US citizens. And who pays for it all? The American worker.

This administration knows that American workers are the best and brightest in the world. These jobs that were stolen from them. Um, should have gone and will now go to Americans first, not foreigners and especially not foreign fraudsters. And today, thanks to President Trump, Vice President, and the task force, we are cutting off the head of the snake.

The companies that have enabled this abuse for decades, due to ongoing criminal investigations led by the Department of Labor’s Inspector General Anthony Disposito, who will get into this shortly. I am hereby suspending from the permanent labor certification program,some of the largest IT outsourcing firms in the world, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, WIPro, HCO, and Cap Gemini. And also due to multiple active federal investigations, the Department of Labor is suspending Microsoft and Adobe from the program.

So what does this mean? We will not accept any new or process any pending permanent labor certification applications involving these companies.

Since 2009, just these companies alone have requested almost 3 million foreign workers. They’ve received over 230,000 H-1B visa approvals and over 100,000 permanent labor certifications. That’s hundreds of thousands of jobs that were taken from American workers. Our historic action is the first critical step to stop the fraud and the abuse, and ensure that these programs never come at the expense of the American worker…..continued, very long article….

Under President Trump’s leadership and thanks to Vice President Vance and this task force, we’re ending the fraud that has fueled reliance on foreign labor. President Trump’s Department of Labor will ensure that American businesses now look first to the most talented workforce in the world, and that’s the American worker. Thank you, and now I invite the Attorney General Blanche to the stage.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/10/08/jd-vance-makes-announcement-suspending-several-tech-firms-including-microsoft-and-adobe-from-h1b-visa-program/#more-287733