The skilled foreign tech workers' green card program under attack from Trump

On Thursday, the U.S. government announced it would suspend some of the world's largest tech and IT firms, including Microsoft, Cognizant, and Capgemini, from a crucial green card program. This program permits skilled foreign workers to obtain permanent residency through their employment. U.S. officials cited allegations of fraud as the reason for the suspension, claiming companies had been using the program to replace American workers with cheaper labor from abroad.

This move marks the latest step in the Trump administration's crackdown on skilled foreign labor. The suspension targets a key employer-sponsorship mechanism called the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM), which is widely used by major technology companies and outsourcing firms. The PERM program, introduced in 2005, aimed to expedite the lengthy processing times experienced under the previous paper-based Alien Employment Certification program.

Under PERM, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) enables an employer to apply for a worker's permanent residency, provided the employer can prove the worker's specialty occupation requires at least a U.S. bachelor's degree level of education or its equivalent in experience. The U.S. government stated that it would no longer accept new PERM applications or process any pending ones for certain companies.