Trump gives science medals to 6 tech titans — 5 of them immigrants — hours after Vance cracks down on Microsoft over H-1B visas

He also said the H-1B visa program, which is supposed to let companies bring in the best talent from outside the U.S. for positions impossible for American workers to fill, has become “rife with fraud over the last several years.”

Vance singled out the biggest violator of the H-1B and PERM (Permanent Labor Certification) program, saying “there has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has abused this system more than Microsoft.”

As chair of the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, Vance said that due to an “ongoing investigation,” the government has “decided to suspend the PERM program for Microsoft.”

Microsoft pushed back, saying it “only files H-1B petitions for those who meet the rigorous standards of this visa category.”

India also responded to Vance’s comments, calling them “deeply offensive,” as official USCIS data showed that 70% of the beneficiaries of H-1B petitions approved in FY 2025 were born in India.

Later that same day, according to NBC News, President Donald Trump awarded top science medals to six tech billionaires, five of whom are immigrants, including India-born Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

The contrast between Vance and Trump’s actions on the same exact day is attention-grabbing.

What the suspension does and doesn’t do

The H-1B visa does not grant a foreign worker permanent residency in the United States. Instead, it is a temporary, non-immigrant visa that allows employers to bring highly skilled professionals to the country to work.

The PERM program, on the other hand, is the first real step in the application for a green card, and that is what the U.S. is suspending for Microsoft and others. The other affected companies include Adobe and six IT outsourcing firms –– Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, HCL Technologies and Capgemini.

The suspension does not stop these companies from applying for H-1B visas, but Trump’s administration is trying to make the process difficult. In September 2025, Trump signed a proclamation adding a $100,000 fee to each new H-1B petition. The fee before that was in the $2,000 to $5,000 range.

While the fee went into effect and was collected for several months, federal courts in June and September 2026 blocked and vacated the policy. The fee is currently not being collected due to these court rulings, but the government has extended the policy via proclamation and is appealing the decisions.

Can immigration visa friction affect U.S. tech growth?

The affected companies are among the largest in the market, and any significant restrictions on hiring talent could deal a heavy blow to the tech industry, as many companies need to hire scarce talent quickly to match the pace at which projects are being built.

After Trump’s $100,000 executive order in 2025, Jensen Huang, President and CEO of Nvidia, told his staff in a memo that he would keep sponsoring visas and absorb the cost.