Vice President JD Vance used a press conference to attack technology companies, H-1B visas and immigration. Vance and Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling announced that the Trump administration would suspend the permanent labor certification process, or PERM , for seven technology companies. They also announced investigations into nine U.S. universities for using J-1 visas. Vance, joined by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, promoted what economists call the lump of labor fallacy, the (mistaken) belief in a fixed number of jobs, meaning any newcomer, such as an immigrant, must take a job from an incumbent job holder.

Labor Department Suspends 7 Companies From Immigration Sponsorship

At the press conference on October 8, 2026, Vance and Labor Secretary Sonderling announced that DOL would suspend Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Capgemini, Tata, Wipro and HCL from PERM, a key step in sponsoring employment-based immigrants. Vance announced federal investigations against Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown, the University of Pittsburgh, UC Davis, Caltech, Arizona State and MIT for employing J-1 visa holders.

Under DOL regulations , the agency can suspend labor certification applications for 180 days while it investigates a company. If an investigation or proceeding is not concluded, DOL can continue the suspension.

Stephen Miller also appeared at the conference to tout the administration’s anti-immigration policies and to argue that America doesn’t need immigrants. “America is blessed with some of the most exceptional talent that has ever existed in the history of the world, homegrown American talent,” he said. “This has been true since the day our country was founded. Go back to the Wright Brothers and the journey into the skies, the industrial base, the power of World War II, the genius of American space flight and aviation. Homegrown American talent has been at the center of one revolution after another.”

Vance directed his vitriol at Microsoft, recognized as one of the world’s most valuable and successful companies. The criticism raised eyebrows because it came the same day Donald Trump awarded Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella the National Medal of Technology and Innovation at the White House.

“In the last year, Microsoft, and I want to be clear about the data here, so let me check this, but Microsoft laid off last year 6,000, 6,000 American workers,” said Vance. “At the same time, the company benefited from 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards. In other words, if you do the math, for every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants.

“Now that is a scandalous system that we’ve allowed in this country for far too long, but thanks to the work of this task force and thanks to the empowerment of the president of the United States, we are gonna stop. Because thanks to an ongoing investigation, we have decided to suspend the PERM program for Microsoft, which means they will no longer be able to apply. . . no longer be able to take those H-1Bs and apply for permanent resident status within the United States of America.”

Microsoft said in a statement that the comparison was unfair: “We look forward to providing the Administration with additional information. For example, of the approximately 6,000 H-1B visa applications we submitted in the last fiscal year, 80% were to extend or change the status of existing Microsoft employees. These were not to hire new people. 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.”

Throughout the press conference, JD Vance made clear he believes there is a fixed number of jobs at Microsoft, in the technology sector and in the U.S. economy.

Analysts note that statistics show the fallacy behind Vance’s belief in a fixed number of jobs and the assertion that foreign nationals in America must “take” a job from a U.S. worker:

  • In the U.S. economy, between 1990 and 2026, the number of employees (nonfarm) has increased by almost 50 million, from 109,522 to 159,044, a rise of 45%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  • The number of U.S.-born workers employed in computer science and mathematical occupations increased by more than 2.7 million, or 141%, between 2003 and 2024, according to BLS.
  • The number of U.S.-born workers employed in all STEM-related occupations increased by over 3 million, or 50%, between 2003 and 2024.
  • Microsoft’s employee count rose from 5,635 to 223,000, a nearly 4,000% increase, between 1990 and 2026, according to company filings. Microsoft’s employee count has increased by 109,000 over the past 10 years.

“The lump of labor fallacy is the assumption that there is a fixed amount of work to be done,” according to Scott Wola, an assistant vice president at the St. Louis Fed. “If this were true, new jobs could not be generated, just redistributed.” Wola notes, “Those who believe the fallacy have often felt threatened by new technology or the entrance of new people into the labor force. These fears are rooted in a mistaken zero-sum view of the economy, which holds that when someone gains in a transaction, someone else loses.”

Wola concludes, “Labor is not a fixed lump. Rather, labor is determined by the underlying demand for the goods and services produced by the labor. In the long run, the number of jobs will increase with the size of the labor force and the economy.”

Vance Makes Immigration Assertions

Vance made other statements that analysts say the data do not support. “And here’s the basic data," said Vance. “If you are working as an H-1B visa in the United States of America, you’re earning $20,000 less than an American citizen hired in the same position. If you were brought in by one of these foreign outsourcing firms, you’re making $48,000 less than an American citizen in a similar position.” He also called all H-1B visa holders “indentured servants.”

A recent study by Johns Hopkins economics professor Michael Clemens found H-1B visa holders earn salaries up to 6% higher than comparable U.S. professionals. University of Maryland researchers Sunil Mithas and Henry C. Lucas, Jr. concluded, “[C]ontrary to popular belief, non-U.S. citizen IT professionals are not paid less compared to American IT professionals.” Studies by Glassdoor, the Government Accountability Office and others have reached similar conclusions.

According to USCIS data, H-1B visa holders are not “cheap labor.” The median annual salary for an H-1B visa holder in computer-related occupations was $140,000 in FY 2025. The average salary was $145,000.

Although Vance called H-1B professionals “indentured servants,” USCIS data relate a different story. According to an NFAP analysis , “A total of 68,167 H-1B petitions were approved for individuals to change to a new employer (via “continuing employment”) in FY 2025. That large a number calls into question allegations that H-1B visa holders are ‘indentured servants.’ Counting individuals approved for H-1B petitions for initial employment, more than one-third, or 37%, of H-1B professionals working for a new company or organization, transferred from other employers.”

Analysts note that the Trump administration has adopted two policies that tie H-1B visa holders closer to their employer. First, preventing Microsoft and other companies from filing PERM applications keeps more individuals in H-1B status rather than gaining permanent residence. Second, the Trump administration has proposed a rule to end the 60-day grace period for H-1B visa holders who lose their jobs. By requiring individuals to leave the United States almost immediately after losing employment, it ties H-1B visa holders more closely to their employers.

Attorneys also question Vance’s criticism of companies’ advertising practices, given that DOL regulations typically require employers applying for PERM to use print advertisements to test the labor market. The advertising requirement comes from the Department of Labor, even though Sen. Ted Kennedy said when Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 that DOL could use statistical analysis to satisfy labor certification.

Given the unrelenting negative tone of the press conference, one could overlook the overwhelmingly positive economic findings on the benefits of high-skilled immigration to the United States.

University of California-Davis’ Giovanni Peri and Kevin Shih and Colgate University’s Chad Sparber concluded that the presence of foreign STEM workers accounts for about 30% to 50% of the aggregate productivity growth in the United States between 1990 and 2010. According to Michael Clemens, that means up to 1/6 th of U.S. economic growth over that 20-year period was due to the flow of foreign-born professionals in science and engineering fields.

Peri, Shi and Sparber also found that a percentage point increase in the share of foreign STEM workers in a city’s employment mix “increased the wage growth of native college-educated labor by about 7 to 8 percentage points."

A study by economists William R. Kerr (Harvard Business School) and William F. Lincoln (University of Michigan) examined patenting and concluded, “Total invention increases with higher [H-1B] admission levels primarily through the direct contributions of immigrant inventors.”

“Immigrants have founded or cofounded 59% (455 of 775) of America’s privately held startup companies valued at $1 billion or more,” according to a National Foundation for American Policy analysis . (I authored the study.) The collective value of the 455 immigrant-founded billion-dollar companies is $5 trillion, larger than the total market value of companies listed on stock markets in all but 7 countries.

Approximately two-thirds (66%) of U.S. billion-dollar companies (unicorns) were founded or cofounded by immigrants or the children of immigrants. Nearly 80% have an immigrant founder or an immigrant in a key leadership role, such as CEO or vice president of engineering.

The pool of qualified applicants for many highly skilled positions in the United States remains mostly foreign-born, which was not mentioned at the press conference. Companies recruiting at U.S. universities find that international students make up about 75% to 80% of full-time graduate students in AI-related fields, such as computer and information sciences. The U.S. unemployment rate in math and computer occupations was only 3.3% in Sept. 2026, lower than the 3.9% level one year earlier, according to the BLS.

The consequences of the measures announced at that press conference are likely to extend beyond the targeted entities. “The administration’s actions against employers that use the H-1B visa and universities that issue F-1 and J-1 visas will have a massive chilling effect on the desire of companies to engage in this visa classification and students to come and study in the United States. Ultimately, I think that is the point, the administration wants to discourage immigration,” said Jonathan Grode of Green & Spiegel in an interview. On the day of the press conference, he received calls from a dozen employers expressing concern about the viability of the H-1B and green card process.

Grode points to a disconnect between the administration’s technological aspirations and its immigration policies. “On the one hand, the administration states that we must win the AI race at all costs,” said Grode. “But if we cannot pull the best and the brightest from around the world to achieve this mission through legal immigration, we will certainly fail, as competing countries will harvest the international talent that we willingly dismiss.”