Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that the Trump administration is suspending Microsoft, Adobe and several other IT firms' ability to hire foreign-born workers for permanent residency in the U.S.

Why it matters: The move will affect hundreds of companies owned by the tech giant, escalating the Trump administration's crackdown on immigrant labor.

What they're saying: "We want people to invest in the United States of America, particularly the American technology sector," Vance said during a Thursday news conference.

  • "We're the biggest boosters of your industry. We want you to continue to grow and to employ a lot of people, but we want you to employ American workers."
  • "And so our message to Microsoft is, you're a great American company, but you've got to hire great American workers. You cannot lay off American workers and then replace them with foreign indentured servants."

Zoom in: The permanent labor certification program, which is administered through the Department of Labor, allows a company to hire foreign workers to live permanently in America.

  • It's typically the first step in receiving an employer-sponsored green card. It's also separate from H-1B visas, which allow workers to live and work temporarily in the U.S.
  • H-1B visas primarily go to highly skilled workers in specialized occupations. Technology companies are among the program's biggest users.
  • The Trump administration has made reducing the number of foreign workers in the country a rallying cry, and accused foreign-born workers of taking jobs that could — and, in its view, should — go to Americans.

Driving the news: Vance specifically singled out Microsoft, slamming them for laying off 6,000 workers last year.

  • Vance said Thursday that "[a]t 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."
  • Microsoft owns hundreds of companies, including LinkedIn, Skype and gaming studio Activision Blizzard.
  • Adobe and IT outsourcing firms Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL, and Capgemini are also suspended from the program.

Worth noting: Trump will award Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella the National Medal of Technology and Innovation at the White House today.

  • Microsoft did not respond to Axios' request for comment.

Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout with additional information.