Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that the administration is suspending several tech firms, including Microsoft, from a program that allows H-1B visa holders to apply for green cards.

The action by Vance's antifraud task force targets Microsoft, Adobe and several tech recruiting companies over what officials have alleged are widespread abuses of the visa system. The announcement comes the same day as President Trump is set to recognize Microsoft's CEO at an event.

Vance said that no other company has abused the system more than Microsoft, accusing the tech giant of laying off U.S. citizens only to replace them with foreign workers brought into the country on H-1B visas. "For every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one-and-a-half foreign indentured servants," he said, arguing that the company is indicative of a "scandalous system that we've allowed in this country for far too long."

Microsoft and Adobe didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Created by Congress in 1990, the H-1B program is the main pathway to the U.S. for highly skilled foreign workers, making it an engine of the tech industry and startup ecosystem. Visa holders can eventually become eligible to apply for green cards, which let them stay in the country indefinitely.

The program has come under increasing scrutiny from Republicans, however, as the Trump administration tries to compel companies to hire Americans. The problem, the program's critics say, is that companies aren't required to show that no Americans are suitable for a particular job before they hire a foreign professional on an H-1B.

Vance has previously said that the H-1B program "is completely broken" and signaled that he would support eliminating the temporary visa program entirely. His wife Usha's parents immigrated to the U.S. before the H-1B program was created, but arrived as students and stayed.

Vance said at a Turning Point event at the University of Mississippi earlier this year that people who come to the U.S. should focus on improving the country where they live.

"Look, I am married to the daughter of immigrants from India and, you know, I love my in-laws and they're great people and they've been great contributors to the USA," Vance said at the event in April. "One of the obligations of such citizens is that they must think about the country and not the country or group they came from...The system works only when everyone thinks of themselves as Americans," he added.

Companies can employ someone on an H-1B for a maximum of six years and then must then sponsor them for a green card to keep them. The employment-based green card process, unlike the H-1B, requires that the company perform a "labor market test" to ensure that no Americans are qualified to fill the job in question.

The Trump administration has alleged that companies game this process to keep their existing employees by advertising jobs for green-card holders more narrowly than other job listings. The tech industry has countered these claims by arguing that, even though they advertise an immigrant employee's job more narrowly, they are simply following the guidelines set out in the law. Tech companies have also said it is difficult to find an American with the precise skill set of an employee who has worked in the role for years.

Still, the administration has brought cases against several companies saying this green card process treats immigrants preferentially over American citizens. The Justice Department has settled with several major tech companies, including OpenAI and Meta.

Under the law, the Labor Department can also suspend companies from being eligible to use the employment-based green card process altogether, but only after they have followed a process allowing the company to respond.

Asked about Trump's plan to award Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, Vance said that the administration didn't want to harm the company but send them a message that they ought to hire Americans over foreign workers.

"So we're going to continue to support Microsoft and have a great relationship with Microsoft, but we're also going to deny them the ability to apply for these permanent residencies until they show that they are going to get serious about putting American workers first," he said.

Vance also singled out nine American universities that he said were abusing a similar program, the J-1 visa program, which allows international students to work and study in the U.S. in exchange for legal status. Vance said those universities merited further investigation, and Anthony D'Esposito, the Labor Department's inspector general, threatened legal action and said he had sent subpoenas to them.

"I don't care how prestigious a university thinks it is," said D'Esposito. "Break the law and screw the American people, and I will personally cuff you in a university square."