Microsoft and Adobe have been suspended from the H-1B visa program, Vice President JD Vance announced Thursday, amid accusations that they and other companies have extensively abused the system to hire cheaper labor.

“This is a great day for American workers, because we are taking some very concrete actions to cut down on some of the H-1B and J-1 visa fraud that we’ve been tracking over the past several months,” Vance said at a Thursday morning press conference.

The J-1 visa is for foreign students, teachers, researchers and a few other visitor categories. The H-1B program allows companies to hire nonimmigrant foreign workers for roles that require specialized knowledge when they can’t be filled by the U.S. workforce.

Vance said the latter program has become “rife with fraud over the last several years—probably the last several decades.”

Rather than use H-1B visas for their intended purpose, he said, companies and outsourcing firms are using it to replace American workers “with what is effectively foreign indentured servants,” who are “being mistreated by their employers and being used to undercut the wages of American workers.”

The announcements follow an executive order in September that announced a review of the program’s application data, alleging “large-scale, systematic abuse” by companies.

The order—which comes from an administration whose attacks on science and research have been documented extensively—also characterized the abuse as a national security threat for discouraging Americans from “pursuing careers in science and technology.” 

The Trump administration has taken other actions to rein in H-1B visas, including last year’s announcement of a $100,000 fee for new applications, causing backlash and legal challenges .

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