Staff Reports
Americans are watching a moment of reckoning in Big Tech: Microsoft is now under a Department of Labor PERM suspension after revelations that thousands of U.S. workers were laid off while H-1B and green-card filings kept flowing. This is not bureaucratic hair-splitting — Question 26 on the PERM form has exposed a pattern that looks like corporate contempt for American workers. President Donald Trump’s administration and Vice President JD Vance have pulled the curtain back, and voters who care about jobs are paying attention.
Department of Labor suspends PERM pipeline — Microsoft and others
The Department of Labor, with Acting Secretary of Labor Keith E. Sonderling on the record, announced it will not accept or process PERM applications for Microsoft, Adobe, and several large IT outsourcers while investigations proceed. Vice President JD Vance led the White House briefing and accused Microsoft of a systematic replacement strategy that undercuts American workers, even showing the administration’s numbers on screen. This enforcement move uses long-standing regulatory authority and signals the administration means business on H-1B abuse and PERM fraud.
Question 26: the paperwork that became a smoking gun
Question 26 on the ETA Form 9089 — the PERM layoff disclosure — is the legal pivot here: it requires employers to disclose and document layoffs in the occupation within six months and to consider laid-off Americans first. What corporate lawyers treated as routine compliance has been exposed as the document that can reveal whether firms are gaming the system to replace U.S. staff with cheaper foreign labor. Conservatives who have warned about outsourcing and papered-over abuses see this as vindication: the rule of law and the intent of PERM exist to protect American jobs, not to provide a conveyor belt for foreign replacements.
Numbers, accountability, and corporate spin
Vice President JD Vance cited roughly 6,000 laid-off Microsoft workers, about 6,300 H-1B approvals, some 3,000 green cards, and about 3,682 PERM filings with nearly 1,000 overlapping job duties — a math that smells of coordination if true. Microsoft’s pushback that 80 percent of filings were extensions or status changes does not erase the overlap allegations or the obligation to document recruitment and consideration of laid-off Americans. Accountability means the government should release the data, and Microsoft should produce recruitment logs and notifications that prove it followed the law in spirit, not just in form.
What comes next for workers and the green-card pipeline
The PERM suspension tool can freeze filings for at least 180 days and be extended while investigations continue, a practical blow to employers’ green-card pipelines and a potential squeeze on H-1B workers who rely on timely sponsorship. The administration should follow through with transparency: release the evidence behind the counts, provide the written suspension notices, and make sure the process protects U.S. workers while managing legitimate foreign-worker cases fairly. This fight is bigger than one company; it is about restoring sovereignty over our labor market, defending middle-class careers, and making sure corporate America answers to the American people.
