US Department of Labor Suspends Six IT Outsourcing Companies from PERM Program; Vance Separately Publicly Accuses Microsoft of Abusing Green Card Program

US Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling announced on Thursday that six major IT outsourcing companies—Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini—have been suspended from the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) program. According to a Deutsche Welle report, Sonderling claimed these six companies are "some of the world's largest IT outsourcing companies" and said the suspension stems from federal investigations against them; however, the specific allegations and evidentiary basis of the investigations have not been disclosed in public reports.

The targeting of this suspension list is striking: Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, and HCL are all Indian companies or multinational giants headquartered in India; Capgemini, although headquartered in France, maintains a large technical workforce in India just like the other five. Deutsche Welle noted that these companies are either Indian themselves or rely on large numbers of Indian technical professionals already working in the United States, which also explains why Indian media has reacted intensively to the matter.

In remarks on the same day, Vice President JD Vance further directed his criticism at Microsoft. Deutsche Welle quoted him as saying: "No company in the United States has used this system more heavily than Microsoft." Vance described an operating pattern he called abuse: companies first place job advertisements in small-town newspapers, then use the "no applicants" rationale to apply for green cards for foreign employees. "They use the result of this lack of applicants to replace American workers with what are essentially foreign contract laborers," Vance said.

This public accusation formed a stark contrast with another government arrangement on the same day. According to Deutsche Welle, just hours before the suspension announcement, President Trump was scheduled to present Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. The final outcome of the ceremony has not been accounted for in public reports, but it reflects that while this administration publicly honors tech industry leaders, it has also acted against the employment chain of the same industry under the rhetoric of "protecting American workers."

Microsoft responded in a statement, saying it will provide additional information to the government, emphasizing that the majority of its employees are American, that the company pays the highest level of compensation in the tech industry, and that the wage levels in its H-1B applications rank among the highest for such applications; the company also noted that a substantial portion of its H-1B applications involve adjustment of status for individuals already within the United States. The company's 2025 annual report shows Microsoft employs approximately 125,000 American employees and 103,000 international employees. According to Deutsche Welle, Microsoft did not respond to Vance's accusations point by point.

The H-1B visa program has long been accused by some legislators and labor unions of replacing American employees with low-cost foreign labor, and the current administration is conducting a broader crackdown on this program. The PERM suspension means companies can no longer use the rationale of "a lack of qualified American applicants" to apply for permanent labor certification, aimed at securing green cards, for foreign employees; this procedure is a key link for tech workers transitioning from H-1B status to permanent residency.

The report does not address: whether the suspension will affect foreign employees already in the United States who are in the process of adjusting their status, what visa and livelihood impacts this entails for ordinary workers and their families in technical labor-exporting countries represented by India; the specific type of abuse referred to in Sonderling's "federal investigation" remains at the level of one-sided statements by government officials.