‘Midterm election theater’: Gee and Ursula rip Trump administration’s Microsoft H-1B crackdown

The Trump administration’s decision to suspend Microsoft from a program that helps skilled foreign workers get green cards has KIRO host Ursula Reutin calling the move political timing rather than immigration enforcement. KIRO host Gee Scott believes it targets South Asian workers.

On “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio, the co-hosts discussed Microsoft’s pushback against the administration’s claim that the company is abusing the H-1B visa system.

“To me, this is midterm election theater, but it’s disguised as immigration enforcement,” Ursula said.

Microsoft pushes back on Vance’s claims

Ursula explained that Microsoft said most of the 6,000 visa applications it filed last year were for employees already working in the U.S., not for workers brought in to replace Americans. The company also rejects Vice President JD Vance’s claim that H-1B workers are paid much less. It said they earn the same as other employees doing comparable jobs.

Vance announced the suspension a day earlier.

“There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has abused this system more than Microsoft,” Vance said. “Thanks to an ongoing investigation, we have decided to suspend the PERM program for Microsoft.”

Ursula noted that the suspension does not cancel workers’ H-1B visas, but it could block or delay the path to a green card for potentially thousands of Microsoft employees.

Gee asks why Microsoft was singled out

Gee pointed to his understanding that about three-quarters of H-1B approvals go to South Asian workers, mostly from India. He described immigration as a complicated topic, but he doesn’t think the move is an effort to clean up the system.

“I think this is one of those, like it’s kind of an attack on those approvals again,” Gee said. “Why Microsoft? Why not some of these other companies?”

Ursula noted that the administration had also gone after a few other companies, though Microsoft is the largest. Gee asked what they had in common.

“Also, foreign workers,” Ursula answered.

Ursula calls out the timing and the contradictions

Ursula gave the administration credit for being open about its intentions but questioned the timing, with the midterms less than a month away.

“They have found a perfect campaign villain — a giant tech company laying off Americans while still using foreign worker visas,” she argued.

She also pointed to what she sees as hypocrisy. Hours after Vance’s announcement, President Donald Trump gave Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella one of the country’s highest technology awards. Ursula added that Nadella himself came to the U.S. on an H-1B visa.

Ursula, who held a green card while working at KIRO before becoming a U.S. citizen, argued that the suspension could backfire on the workers the administration says it wants to protect. H-1B status is temporary, but a green card gives workers more freedom to change jobs, negotiate wages, or start a company.

“If you are concerned about these folks making so much less money, taking away their ability to get a green card is only going to make it worse,” she said.

She also questioned why the administration would target a company celebrated for helping America compete in artificial intelligence.

Gee: ‘They are saying the quiet part out loud’

Gee asked listeners to set politics aside and consider one question: Is the American education system preparing workers for high-tech and AI jobs as well as other countries are?

“I say no,” Gee said.

Ursula agreed.

“I want us to be, but I don’t think so,” she said. “If you are truly a company that is looking for the very best talent, you have to look everywhere, not just here.”

For Gee, the push to protect American workers sounds like something the country has heard before.

“We have seen this script before, where you say no, no, no, not them, even though they might be qualified, but because they are this ethnicity, we gotta prevent them, and we have to protect American workers,” Gee said. “Not everybody in the United States of America has been considered American. As a matter of fact, that’s still happening to this day.”

He argued that the administration is no longer hiding its goals.

“They are saying the quiet part out loud,” Gee said.

Ursula added that if Microsoft or any other company is mistreating workers, it should be held accountable.

“But I don’t think that is necessarily what this is,” she said.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.