Trump Admin Suspends Microsoft From Sponsoring H-1B Visa Holders for Green Cards

Vance, an inveterate promoter of racist conspiracy theories, alleged at a press conference for the Fraud Task Force that Microsoft conspires to place job ads in obscure small-town papers. Then, according to Vance, Americans fail to see the ads, and Microsoft can claim it advertised the job to citizens before abusing H-1B holders as a pool of forced, foreign labor.

A Microsoft spokesperson directed Gizmodo to a blog post stating company representatives “look forward to providing the Administration with additional information.” Of the roughly 6,000 H-1B applications Microsoft submitted during the last fiscal year, the statement read, “80% were to extend or change the status of existing Microsoft employees.”

“The remaining filings for new employees were for individuals already legally in the United States who decided to come work for us, and they equal only 1% of our U.S. workforce. They are not new arrivals to our country,” Microsoft added in the post. The company wrote that it pays H-1B employees the same rates as anyone else doing comparable work.

Vance’s announcement came hours before Trump personally presented Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, a former H-1B visa holder, with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Also honored: Tesla/SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who has said he used to have an H-1B visa, as well as Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su, all of whom are immigrants.