The Trump administration announced that it is investigating companies and universities in a visa crackdown as part of the broader anti-fraud effort.

Microsoft and Adobe are now suspended from using the Program Electronic Review Management (PERM) program to allow for them to get H-1B visa workers. 

"The H-1B visa program is meant to allow companies to bring in really the best of the best from outside the U.S. for positions that are completely impossible to fill with American workers,” Vice President JD Vance said at an event on Thursday announcing the changes. 

Administration officials including Vance, Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling and Attorney General Todd Blanche sounded off about how abuse of the visa system can ultimately lead to American citizens being shut out of job opportunities. 

“Unfortunately, the program has become rife with fraud,” he added. 

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In addition, certain organizations that help companies get IT workers abroad are facing consequences for alleged abuse of the immigration system.

“I am hereby suspending from the Permanent Labor Certification Program some of the largest IT outsourcing firms in the world — Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini — and also, due to multiple active federal investigations, the Department of Labor is suspending Microsoft and Adobe from the program,” Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling said.

Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito also said that nine universities are being investigated, and have been subpoenaed in a J-1 visa investigation. The J-1 visa is intended for “exchange visitors,” and it usually has an educational component such as “graduate medical education or training,” according to United States Citizens and Immigration Services. 

The University of Pittsburgh, Arizona State University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown, University of California, Davis, and the California Institute of Technology are being looked at. 

“Subpoenas have been served. Investigations are underway. And nobody will be getting a free pass because their name is carved into an expensive building,” the inspector general said.