President Trump awards Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Lisa Su, and Sergey Brin the National Medal of Science at a White House summit promoting innovation (Jared Perlo/NBC News)

The White House has barred Microsoft from further participation in a federal program that enables companies to apply for green cards for employees holding H-1B visas, accusing the tech giant of abusing the system. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling announced the suspension during a press conference at the White House. Under the PERM program, American employers must prove they couldn't hire U.S. workers before sponsoring a foreign national for a green card.

Microsoft is not the only company facing suspension; Adobe, Cognizant, Capgemini, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, and HCL Technologies were also banned. Vice President JD Vance criticized Microsoft, alleging it replaced American workers with foreign workers and committed fraud by using job ads to secure H-1B visas and green cards for foreign employees.

The technology industry's VP highlighted that Microsoft laid off 6,000 American jobs while securing 6,200 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards for foreign employees during the same period. Microsoft refuted the allegations, stating that Americans make up a significant portion of its U.S. workforce and that most of the H-1B visa applications it sponsored were for existing employees.

The White House's decision to target green cards follows a federal judge's ruling blocking a plan to impose a steep fee on new HB-1 visa applications.