ThisisNews Network
Washington: US Vice President JD Vance alleged at a press conference that employers had exploited the H-1B visa programme by advertising vacancies in ways that discouraged applications from American workers and subsequently hiring foreign nationals at lower wages.
Vance said the H-1B programme was intended to enable US employers to recruit highly skilled foreign workers for positions that could not be filled by American workers. He alleged that the programme had instead been used to replace American employees and undercut their wages.
Citing Microsoft as an example, Vance said the company had laid off approximately 6,000 American workers in the previous year while benefiting from 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards.
The US Department of Labour has announced the suspension of permanent labour certification processing involving eight major companies, citing ongoing criminal investigations and alleged abuses of employment-based immigration programmes.
Labour Secretary Keith Sonderling announced at the White House press conference that the department was suspending the processing of applications involving Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, Capgemini, Microsoft and Adobe.
Sonderling said the department would neither accept new permanent labour certification applications involving the companies nor process pending applications. He cited ongoing criminal investigations involving the six IT outsourcing companies and multiple active federal investigations concerning Microsoft and Adobe.
Sonderling said the White House task force had uncovered $22 billion in visa fraud. He also said the eight companies had collectively requested nearly three million foreign workers since 2009, received more than 230,000 H-1B visa approvals and obtained more than 100,000 permanent labour certifications.
Andrew Ferguson, Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission and Vice Chairman of the White House task force headed by Vance, said the United States’ institutions, including its system of regulation, capital markets and justice system, were built to serve Americans and not the rest of the world. He argued that fraud involving public benefit programmes, commercial driving licences and immigration undermined institutions and deprived Americans of benefits, safe roads, the right to determine who becomes a citizen and fair wages. Referring to the task force’s work over the preceding nine months, he said the administration had deployed the federal government to address such fraud.
The officials described the suspensions as part of the administration’s effort to address alleged systemic fraud and prioritise employment opportunities for American workers.
The PERM programme is a labour certification process used by employers seeking to sponsor eligible foreign workers for employment-based permanent residence. The H-1B programme, separately, permits US employers to employ foreign nationals in qualifying specialty occupations.
The announcement does not, by itself, establish that any of the named companies has been found guilty of fraud by a court. The officials referred to ongoing investigations, and no criminal charges against the companies in connection with the suspensions were announced during the press conference.
Source: White House press conference featuring Vice President JD Vance, Labour Secretary Keith Sonderling and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, October 8, 2026.
White House release: https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2026/10/president-trump-is-putting-american-industry-jobs-and-paychecks-back-on-the-map/
https://www.youtube.com/live/7QAu9FOEOv8?si=uhmltCyqOpWvCV4N
