Vance unveils sweeping visa crackdown, ends PERM for Microsoft

Vice President JD Vance on Thursday announced a sweeping probe into major universities using J1 visas at unusually high rates and also barred Microsoft from using the PERM program.

The vice president highlighted the lower average wages of imported foreign workers in the university system than American graduate students, saying the schools were using them to undercut wages for graduate students.

"These universities are employing J1 visas for federally funded grants at a rate of about 61%. The national average is 38%. So something weird is going on at these universities!" Vance said. "They're using these visas way too much. They're using them to undercut the wages of American grad students and American researchers. And it simply has to stop."

Vance specifically highlighted Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown, the University of Pittsburgh, UC Davis, Caltech, Arizona State, and MIT as institutions he believed merited investigation.

On the tech side, Vance also announced that the administration was barring Microsoft from PERM, a permanent resident program that Vance said treated foreign workers like "indentured servants" an worked to undercut American wages.

"We decided to suspend the PERM program for Microsoft, which means they will no longer be able to apply, they'll no longer be able to take those H1Bs and apply for permanent resident status within the United States of America," he said.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.