U.S. Labor Department Targets Tech Giants Exploiting Immigrant Labor in Green-Card Program
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The Labor Department has suspended several major IT outsourcing firms, including Microsoft, from the green-card certification program, exposing the exploitative practices of tech corporations and their disregard for both immigrant and domestic workers.
The U.S. Labor Department announced Thursday the suspension of several powerful information-technology corporations from the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) program, a system that has long enabled tech giants to exploit foreign workers while undermining labor rights. The list of suspended firms includes Microsoft and a cadre of massive outsourcing companies such as Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini—corporations notorious for prioritizing profit over people.
Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling stated that this action follows federal investigations into the abuse of the PERM system by these firms. > "I am hereby suspending from the Permanent Labor Certification Program some of the largest IT outsourcing firms in the world, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini," he declared, signaling a rare move to hold corporate behemoths accountable.
Vice President JD Vance highlighted how the PERM process, intended to protect U.S. workers, is routinely manipulated by corporations. > "They'll put an advertisement in a small-town newspaper and say that no one responded, then they use that to replace American workers," Vance said, exposing the sham recruitment tactics used to justify hiring cheaper foreign labor. Microsoft, a company with a long history of exploiting both immigrant and domestic workers, has used this system extensively.
Microsoft attempted to deflect criticism by claiming that most of its workforce is American and that many H-1B filings involve employees already residing in the U.S. The company boasted about its high compensation, yet this does little to address the systemic exploitation and wage suppression enabled by these visa programs. According to its 2025 annual report, Microsoft employs 125,000 U.S. workers and 103,000 international employees, a testament to its global labor arbitrage.
This suspension is part of a broader, overdue effort by the administration to rein in corporate abuse and tighten immigration rules for skilled-worker visas, though much more remains to be done to ensure justice for all workers.