The Trump administration announced Thursday that it is suspending Microsoft and several other major companies from a program that allows foreign workers to apply for green cards, while also lashing out at universities that bring international students to the United States on exchange programs.

The green-card process is separate from the H-1B program for temporary high-skilled workers and the J-1 program for exchange visitors, though the administration's announcement addressed all three areas. The decision therefore affects a pathway to permanent residency while also putting scrutiny on temporary work and study programs.

The announcement, delivered by Vice President JD Vance, marks the latest swing by the administration at employers and academic institutions that welcome foreign workers and students into the country. Such programs have frequently drawn criticism from some Trump supporters, who argue they undercut American students and workers. Backers counter that they enable the United States to attract top talent from around the world and fill important hiring gaps.

Supporters of the Republican president have long argued that programs such as the H-1B visa — which Vance accused Microsoft of abusing — essentially empower American companies to recruit foreign workers for jobs that end up undercutting Americans. In the wide-ranging announcement, Vance and other top administration officials also criticized universities over their use of J-1 visas for international students, along with information technology outsourcing firms.

The timing was striking: the announcement came just hours before Trump was scheduled to award the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, part of an event at which the president is granting some of the nation's most prestigious science and technology honors to his tech billionaire allies.

How the program works

Vance said the program from which Microsoft is being suspended requires companies to advertise jobs in America before applying to the Department of Labor, in order to demonstrate that they need to give a foreign worker a green card because of a lack of available American workers.

"They'll put an advertisement in a small-town newspaper. They'll go out there and say that 'We have advertised for a position with our company, and nobody is responding to it.' And they will use that lack of response to then go and replace American workers with what is effectively foreign indentured servants," Vance said. "There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has used this system more Microsoft."

According to data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Microsoft ranks No. 5 among U.S. employers in its use of H-1B visas. Amazon holds the No. 1 spot.

Microsoft pushes back

Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Washington, said it looks forward to "providing the Administration with additional information." Of the approximately 6,000 H-1B visa applications it submitted in the last fiscal year, the company said 80% were "to extend or change the status of existing Microsoft employees."

"These were not to hire new people," Microsoft said in a statement. "The remaining filings for new employees were for individuals already legally in the United States who decided to come work for us, and they equal only 1% of our U.S. workforce. They are not new arrivals to our country."

The company added that it files H-1B petitions only for "those who meet the rigorous standards of this visa category."

Doug Rand, a former senior adviser at USCIS during the Biden administration, called Vance's announcement "incoherent."

"If the Trump administration were truly concerned that H-1B workers are 'indentured servants,' then the last thing they would do is block companies from helping their own H-1B workers get green cards," he said. "Once you have a green card, you're no longer dependent on your employer for your immigration status — you're a permanent resident who can change jobs and negotiate higher wages without fear."

The layoff math

At a White House news conference announcing the decision, Vance said Microsoft laid off 6,000 American workers last year while also obtaining 6,300 H-1B visas and nearly 3,000 green cards.

"If you do the math, for every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants," Vance said. "Our message to Microsoft is: You're a great American company, but you've got to hire great American workers."

Vance argued that H-1B workers are effectively indentured servants because those who lose their jobs must leave the country, and because they earn less than Americans in comparable positions.

The H-1B program has long been a target of Trump supporters, who say it undercuts American workers and is rife with abuse. The visas are intended for high-skilled jobs that companies struggle to fill with American workers. Technology companies are the biggest users of the program, with nearly three-quarters of approvals going to workers from India.

A shifting fee landscape

Trump last year attempted to ratchet the H-1B work visa fee up to $100,000, saying it would protect American workers from losing their jobs to lower-paid foreigners, but a federal judge struck the measure down in June. The administration has since tried a different approach, announcing plans in August for a $103,265 fee. The proposed regulation described the new fee as a "dedicated revenue mechanism to help recover a portion of the federal government's costs of administering the lawful immigration system." The rule is not yet final and is expected to face a legal challenge, like the one before it.

Ron Hira, a Howard University political science professor and longtime critic of the H-1B program, called the move against Microsoft "very significant." Hira noted that the White House last month issued a little-noticed executive order directing government agencies to "implement appropriate measures to protect American workers from abuse of the H-1B program and ensure that the program serves the national interest."

"There are supposed to be protections for U.S. workers that say: If you hire an H-1B, you are promising that you are not adversely affecting similarly employed U.S. workers," Hira said. "That's never been enforced."

Besides Microsoft, Vance said the government is similarly suspending Adobe and the technology consulting firms Cognizant, Infosys, Tata, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini. The companies did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

Universities in the crosshairs

The Vance announcement came a day after the administration launched another broadside against international students and their ability to work in the U.S. On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security proposed a $70,000 fee for international students seeking to work in the United States. Under the proposed rule, schools would be required to pay the fee for every student who participates in the Optional Practical Training program, known as OPT, which allows students to work in jobs related to their major during or after their studies.

Vance also called out universities, suggesting they were abusing a program that allows international students to come to the U.S. Those temporary visas, known as J-1 visas, permit international visitors to come to the country temporarily for work and study exchange programs. In most cases, students must receive the majority of their funding from an institution, such as a fellowship-granting organization, rather than paying tuition personally, in order to qualify.

The vice president singled out nine universities that he said merited further investigation for J-1 visa fraud, saying they used the program in greater proportions than their counterparts. They were Harvard; Yale; Stanford; Brown; the University of Pittsburgh; the University of California, Davis; the California Institute of Technology, or Caltech; Arizona State; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT. Stanford said it would cooperate with the investigation. The other universities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas, and Paul Wiseman and Annie Ma in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report. Ortutay reported from Oakland, Calif.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.