The Liberty Daily 
(WND)—Following an announcement by Vice President JD Vance that Microsoft and some other tech companies were being suspended from a special visa program allowing foreigners to come into the United States and work, he confirmed that the financial losses incurred through the scheme might be recouped.
“We’re going to continue to look at a number of these things. Again, we’ve already done some of this work, but we’re going to continue to look at ways of recouping American taxpayer money that has effectively gone to subsidize cheap labor all over the United States of America,” Vance told The Center Square.
WND had reported Vance’s announcement that Microsoft was suspended.
“Thanks to an ongoing investigation, we have decided to suspend the PERM program for Microsoft, which means they will no longer be able to take those H-1Bs and apply for permanent resident status within the United States of America,” explained Vice President JD Vance. “Now our message to Microsoft and to any other foreign or domestic corporation is quite simple. We obviously want you to thrive in the United States of America. We want people to invest in the United States of America, particularly the American technology sector. We’re the biggest boosters of your industry. We want you to continue to grow and to employ a lot of people, but we want you to employ American workers. And so our message to Microsoft is, you’re great American company, but you’ve got to hire great American workers. You cannot lay off American workers and then replace them with foreign indentured servants.”
He later underscored that any individual immigrating to the U.S. shouldn’t be reliant on the federal government for benefits.
“We have already tried to ensure that if you’re coming to the United States of America and benefiting from our very generous welfare system, that you should stop doing that,” said Vance.
“I mean our message to newcomers to the United States of America, whatever program they’re coming on, is that you should come to the United States to enrich this country, to make this country better, to participate, of course, in the institutions of American democracy,” said the vice president. “If your purpose in coming to the United States of America is to cash a check, meaning a check not for working, but from our generous welfare program, then you’re not going to enrich the United States of America, and we would prefer that you not come here.”
A report from the Center Square said Vance “vowed to go after companies that subsidize cheap labor at the cost of American taxpayers.”
The vice president noted Microsoft laid off approximately 6,000 American workers, while importing more than 6,000 foreign workers to do their jobs at a major pay cut. Administration officials claim that several companies and universities import foreign workers and pay them significantly less than American workers, the report said.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform noted in 2023 that the net cost of illegal immigration to the U.S., from the federal government down to the local level was estimated at $150.7 billion.
A wire service reported the program had allowed Microsoft to apply for green cards for workers who come to the U.S. to live and work using H-1B visas.
Critics have challenged a number of such programs catering to huge corporations and foreign workers. The administration has proposed a $100,000 fee for those using the H-1B program, which is on hold while under court review, and $70,000 for a separate, similar, program.
Those programs were intended to provide to American companies the highest level of expertise in various fields. They, however, have been used simply to replace American workers with lower-cost foreigners.
Vance explained the program from which Microsoft now is banned requires companies to advertise jobs in America before giving them to foreigners on the claim of a lack of Americans.
“They’ll put an advertisement in a small-town newspaper. They’ll go out there and say that ‘We have advertised for a position with our company, and nobody is responding to it.’ And they will use that lack of response to then go and replace American workers with what is effectively foreign indentured servants,” Vance said. “There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has used this system more than Microsoft.”
