The White House is expanding its campaign against international workers, targeting elites on study and work visas with restrictions and a new investigation.
On Thursday, the Trump administration announced an investigation into whether Stanford, Caltech, UC Davis and other universities across the country abused a special visa used by international scholars and students to research and work in the United States. It also suspends Microsoft, Adobe and six other technology companies from how they sponsor employees who are in the country under a highly skilled worker visa program.
The White House is concerned that schools and businesses are too quick to recruit people from outside the United States. The move rattled Silicon Valley executives and California educators who view easy access to the world’s smartest, hardest-working people as one of America’s greatest competitive advantages.
Vice President JD Vance said universities under investigation are abusing J-1 visas to bring in students and researchers from abroad. International academics then accept jobs and grants that could go to Americans.
“They use these visas way too much,” he said. “They are using them to undercut the salaries of American graduate students and American researchers, and it simply must stop. »
Harvard, Yale, Brown, University of Pittsburgh, Arizona State and MIT will also be investigated.
Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito said subpoenas have been served and “no one is going to get a free pass because their name is engraved on an expensive building.” Many universities have buildings named after foreign donors.
While most of the companies targeted by the tech visa restriction were Indian, Vance called out Microsoft.
“Unfortunately, no company in America has abused this system more than Microsoft,” Vance told reporters at a White House news conference.
Vance said the company abused the permanent labor certification program, which he said allowed Microsoft to hire international talent who were then paid less to replace American workers.
The new development prevents Microsoft from applying for green cards for workers who come to the United States on an H-1B visa and then apply to become permanent residents.
U.S. tech giants have for decades relied on the H-1B visa program to attract thousands of skilled foreign workers they can’t find locally. Critics have accused the program of being riddled with fraud and abuse.
The administration’s takeover came on the same day that President Trump awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to two prime examples of international talent who came to the United States on student and work visas: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Tesla’s Elon Musk.
Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini were also on the list of companies that will no longer be able to apply for permanent resident status for their H-1B employees.
Microsoft defended the use of the H-1B and said in a statement that it looked forward to sharing additional information with the administration. In an article, he said that of the thousands of H-1B visa applications submitted in the last fiscal year, 80% were to extend or change the status of existing Microsoft employees.
“They represent only 1% of our U.S. workforce. They are not newcomers to our country,” the company said. “Microsoft only files H-1B petitions for those who meet the rigorous standards for this visa category.”
There is a limit of 85,000 H-1B visas issued in a fiscal year, and they are selected through a lottery system. Last year, Microsoft was the third-largest recipient of the program, with 6,258 H-1B visas, according to data United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Amazon tops the list, employing more than 13,000 H-1 B visa holders; Adobe had 777 approved apps.
Thursday’s announcement caused confusion among tech workers and companies. Lawyers specializing in immigration law emphasize that this measure does not consist of a general suspension of green card applications for all employers, but of a targeted freeze on the application of the permanent labor certification program for the eight companies cited.
H-1B supporters note that Silicon Valley’s biggest tech companies are founded or run by immigrants, and efforts to thwart H-1B have already begun to stifle the flow of talent and the creation of startups.
“It will probably only hurt some companies and the best and brightest who have come here,” said Devashish Mitra, an economics professor at Syracuse University. “It’s like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.”
The J-1 investigations follow other actions, making it more difficult for international students to come to U.S. campuses. This year, the Department of Homeland Security said it wants to end the “duration of status” visa policy that allows students to stay in the United States until they complete their programs and limits stays to four years. A federal judge blocked the change and the government is appealing.
The Trump administration also proposed charging colleges $70,000 per student for optional practical training, which allows international students to work in their field of study for a limited number of years after graduation. Students now pay around $500.
In a statement, a Stanford spokesperson said the campus “complies with all applicable visa laws, including those related to J-1 visas. We will cooperate with the investigation.”
A UC Davis spokesperson said the university “scrupulously complies with all federal visa laws and regulations and looks forward to working with our federal partners to confirm their compliance.”
A Caltech spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
About 275,000 people started J-1 programs in 2025, compared to 301,694 in 2024, according to State Department data. Interns and temporary summer workers, such as au pairs and summer camp counselors, also use the visa to enter the United States.
Most were not in college and the majority were working summer jobs.
The Trump administration’s crackdown has begun to deter students from coming to the United States, with experts expecting enrollment numbers to decline when data for 2025 is released next month.
The number of new university researchers fell by 27% between 2024 and 17,622, about half of the 2015 total. Most new researchers in 2025 came from China, followed by South Korea and India.
California attracted the largest number of researchers, 3,211. It ranked second behind New York for all new J-1s in 2025, with 23,167.
The State Department reviews applicants and approves sponsors. University researchers can stay up to five years
Sarah Spreitzer, vice president and chief of staff for government relations at the American Council on Education, said she found little information about what the new surveys would cover. But she said the federal government already has tools “to identify fraud, both in granting the visa and then also in tracking the person through the Department of Homeland Security.”
“I think all of these things are aimed at attracting fewer international students to the United States, and we’ve seen that impact,” she said, expecting “a huge drop in our international enrollment this year, given everything that’s going on.”
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